^60 Account of Travels between the Tropici. 



Cordilleras of Alniaguer a Parto, avoiding the contagious 

 air of the valley of Patia. 



From Pasto, a town situated at the bottom of a burning 

 volcano, they traversed by Guachucal the high plateau of 

 the province of Pastos, separated from the Pacific Ocean 

 by the Andes of the volcano of Chili and Cunibal, and 

 celebrated by its great fertility in wheat and the erytroxy- 

 lon yeruvianum, called cocoa. At length, after a journey 

 of four months on mules, they arrived at the towns of 

 Ibarra and Quito. This long passage through the cordillera 

 of the high Andes, at a season which rendered the roads 

 impassable, and during which they were exposed to rains 

 which continued seven or eight hours a day, encumbered 

 with a great number of instruments and voluminous collec- 

 tions, would have been almost impossible, without the ge- 

 nerous and kind assistance of M. Mendiunetta, viceroy of 

 Santa Fe, and the baron de Carondelet, president of Quito, 

 who, being equally zealous for the progress of science, 

 caused the roads and the most dangerous bridges to be re- 

 paired on a route of 450 leagues in length. 



Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland arrived on the 6th of 

 .January 1802 at Quito, a capital celebrated in the annals 

 of astronomv bv the labours ot La Condamine, Bnuguer, 

 Gouui, and Don J()rge-.Iuan and Ulloa; justly celebrated 

 also by the great amiableness of its inhabitants and their 

 happy disposition for the arts. Our travellers continued 

 their geological and botanical researches for eight or nine 

 months in the kingdom of Quito ; a country rendered per- 

 haps the most interesting in the world by the colossal 

 height of its snowy summits ; the activity of its volcanoes, 

 which in turns throw up flames, rocks, mud, and hydro- 

 sulphureous water ; the frequency of its earthquakes, one 

 of which, on the 7th of February 1797, swallowed up in 

 a few seconds nearly 40,000 inhabitants ; its vegetation ; 

 the remains of Peruvian architecture; and, above all, the 

 manners of its antient inhabitants. 



After two fruitless attempts, they succeeded in twice 

 ascending to the crater of the volcano of Pinchinca, where 

 they made experiments on the analysis of the air ; its elec- 

 tric charge, magnetism, hygroscopy, electricity, and the 

 temperature of boiling water. La Condamine saw the same 

 crater, which he very properly compares to the chaos of 

 the poets ; but he was there without instruments, and could 

 remain only some minutes. 



In his time this immense mouth, hollowed out in basaltic 



porphyry. 



