ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



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having resolved on an enterprize 

 still more arduous, set out in the 

 middle of suminer for the volcano of 

 Tungaragua, and the Nevads (the 

 snow-clad heights) of Chiniborazo. 

 They passed over the deplorable 

 ruins and other villages destroyed 

 the 7th Febrilary, 1797, by an earth- 

 quake, which in a moment swallow- 

 ed up 4<0,000 souls. 



On the summit of Chuehilla de 

 Guandisava, is a chain of calcined 

 rocks, which, before the dreadful 

 earthquake, just mentioned, were 

 covered with a forest of odoriferous 

 cedars. They calculated that Tun- 

 guragua rose to an elevation of 

 16,500 feet above the sea. At 

 length, after incredible efforts, they 

 arrived at the back, which was the 

 eastern side of Chimborazo, and 

 fixed their instruments on the nar- 

 row edge of a rock, projecting from 

 the immense space covered with 

 impenetrable snow. Awidebreach 

 of 500 feet prevented their farther 

 progress. The density of the air 

 was reduced to half. They felt a 

 piercing cold, and great difficulty 

 of breathing. The blood ran from 

 their eyes, their lips, and their gums. 

 They were then on the most ele- 

 vated point of the globe that had 

 ever been trod by mortal. Its 

 height,which exceeded that towhich 

 Condamine ascended in 1745, by 

 3,485 feet, was 19,500 feet above 

 the level of the sea. From this ul- 

 timate position, they found by a tri- 

 gonometrical operation, that the 

 summit of Chimborazo was yet 

 higher than the point where they 

 stood by 2,140 feet. 



Having finished those important 

 observations, our travellers de- 

 scended into the regions of vegeta- 

 VoL. LI. 



tion, and shaped their course along 

 the sides of the great chain of the 

 Andes. They were followed by 

 about twenty mules, carrying their 

 baggage. In their way to Cuenza, 

 they viewed tlie ruins of the pa- 

 laces of the Incas, and other mo- 

 numents of ancient Peruvian gran- 

 deur. In the valley of Saragura, 

 one of the most beautiful scenes in 

 the Andes, they came to Loxa, a 

 town famous for commerce in the 

 Jesuit's bark. The tree that pro- 

 duces it, the quinquina, grows on 

 the back parts (le revers) of the 

 mountains, about 15,000 feet above 

 the level of the sea, in the tem- 

 perature of climate between 60 and 

 70 degrees. They left the moun- 

 tains near the Great Causeway con- 

 structed by the Incas, at the height 

 of two miles, along the chain of 

 the Andes, and proceeded to San 

 Felice. After a rapid and almost 

 perpendicular descent of about a 

 mile, they came to an Indian hut, 

 and having travelled for some time 

 through groves of oranges, went 

 up the river Chayma in a canoe, 

 and so arrived, at length, in the 

 province of Jaen, at the cascades of 

 Reutema, on the left bank of the 

 river of the Amazons, where they 

 found themselves to be only 1,240 

 feet above the level of the sea. 

 Humboldt and his companions, em- 

 barking on this mighty stream, as- 

 cended it as far as the cascades of 

 Tomeperda; and then, turningtheir 

 course toward the south-east, by 

 the famous mines of Chota, situate 

 in the Cordilleras, they came to the 

 town of Laxa Marca, in the raidst 

 of a plain producing immense quan- 

 tities of barley, though at an eleva- 

 tion of 2,730 feet. Having conti- 

 nued their descent for some time, 

 3 on 



