I\I. Humboldt on two Attempts to ascend Ckimbotazo. S93 



et de Physiques,* this cnterprize, which very closely resembles 

 my own, — and since our observations are mutually confirma- 

 tive of each other, — this small fragment of a journey, which I 

 here lay before the public, will no doubt be favoured with an 

 indulgent reception. I shall provisionally refrain from all cir- 

 cumstantial geognostic and physical discussions. 



On the 22d June 1799, I was in the crater of the Peak of 

 Teneriffe. Tliree years afterwards, almost on the same day 

 (the 23d June 1802), I reached a point 6700 feet higher, near 

 the summit of Chimborazo. After a long delay in^the table- 

 land of Quito, one of the most wonderful and picturesque regions 

 of the earth, we undertook the journey towards the forests of 

 the Peruvian bark trees of Loxa, the upper course of the river 

 Amazons, westward of the celebrated strait (Pongo de Man- 

 seriche), and through the sandy desert along the Peruvian coast 

 of the South Sea towards Lima, where we were to observe 

 the transit of Mercury on the 9th November 1802. On a plain 

 covered with pumice-stone, — where (after the fearful earth- 

 quake of 4th February 1797) the building of the new city Rio- 

 bamba was begun, — we enjoyed for several days a splendid view 

 of the bell or dome-shaped summit of Chimborazo. We had 

 the clearest weather, favouring trigonometrical observation. By 

 means of a large telescope, we had thoroughly examined the snow- 

 mantle of the mountain, still 15,700 toises distant, and discovered 

 several ridges, which, projecting like sterile black streaks, con- 

 verged towards the summit, and gave some hope that, upon them, 

 a firm footing might be obtained in the region of eternal snow. 

 Riobamba Nuevo lies within sight of the enormous and now in- 

 dented mountain Capac-urcu, called by the Spaniards El Altar, 

 ■which (says a tradition of the natives) was once higher than 

 Chimborazo, and after having been many years in a state of 

 eruption, suddenly fell in. This terror-spreading event is said 

 to have taken place shortly before the conquest of Quito by the 

 Inca Tupac-Yupanqui. Riobamba Nuevo must not be con- 

 founded with the old Riobamba of the great map of La Conda- 

 mine and Don Pedro Maldonado. The latter city was entirely 



• See Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. xix, for 1835, where there 

 is a translation of Boussingault's memoir. 



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