SlO Account of M. Hmni<oldt*s Travels 



merits. It is in this mannier thM man is accustomed to sleep 

 soimdiy on tlie brink of a precipice. 



VV\' resided nearly'eight nionjlxs in the province of Qnito ; 

 that is to say, from tlxc' beginninir of January to th'^ nionth 

 ot August, and employed that time in visiting the different 

 volcanoes. We examined in succession the siiimnits of Pin- 

 thincha, Cotopaxi, Antisana, and Ihnic;a, spending from 

 a foitnight to three weeks on eacii of them ; and always re- 

 turning ni the intervals to ^uito, which we left on the gth 

 ut June 180i2 to proceed to the environs of Chimbora90, 

 •which is situated in the southern part of the province. 



1 twice ascended, viz. on the 26tli and 2Sth of May 1802, 

 to the edge of the crater of Pinchineha, a mountain which 

 overlooks the town of Quito. Before, no person, as far a9 

 1 know, except Condamine, ever saw it ; and Condamine 

 himself ai-rivcd there only after five or six days of fruitless 

 lesearches, and without instruments; and, on account of 

 the excessive cold, could remain on it only twelve or fifteen 

 minutes. I succeeded in carrying thither my instruments ; 

 I made important measurements, and collected some of the 

 air to analyse it. The first time I ascended I was accom- 

 panied only by an Indian. As La Condamine approached 

 tlie crater at the lower part of its edge covered with snow, 

 I made my first attempt by foUovv'ing his traces ; but we 

 were in danger of perishing. The Indian fell into a fis- 

 sure up to the breast ; and we observed with horror that we 

 had walked on a bridge of frozen snow, for at the distance 

 of some paces from us there were holes through which day- 

 light appeared. We then found ourselves on arches which 

 adhere to the very crater. Alarmed, but not discouraged, 

 I changed my project. From the circumference of the cra- 

 ter tliere arise, projecting themselves as I may sav over the 

 abyss, three peaks or rocks not covered with snow ; because 

 the vapours exb.aled from the mouth of the volcano conti- 

 nually dissolve it. I climbed up one of these rocks, and 

 found at its summit a stone, which being supported at one 

 tnd only, and hollow below, projected over the precipice 

 in the form of a balcony. Here I stationed myself to make 

 expernnents. But this stone was only about twelve feet in 

 length and six in breadth, and was stronglv agitated by frc- 

 <luent shocks of an earthquake, of which I counted eighteen 

 in less than thirty minutes. That we might examine the 

 bottom of the crater better, we lay down on our bellies ; 

 ,and I do not think that t!ie imagination can conceive any 

 thing more gloomy and frightful than what we then saw. 

 The moutlt of the volcano forms a circular hole of nearly a 



lea>;;uc 



