234 STOrPED BY A CHASM. 



Finally the belts of cloud parted, and they saw on the 

 sudden, the vast dome of Chimborazo It seenaed near 

 them, so near that in a few minutes they might reach it. 

 The ledges too seemed to 'favor them by becoming 

 broader. They hurried onward for a short distance, 

 excited with the hope of soon standing on the pinnacle. 

 All at once the path was stopped by a chasm, four hun- 

 dred feet deep, and sixty feet broad. There was no way 

 by which they could cross it: the difficulty was insur- 

 mountable. To tantalize them still further they saw 

 that the path went forward on the other side of the 

 ledge, evidently reaching the summit. If they could 

 have but crossed that chasm ! 



It was one o'clock in the afternoon, and they were 

 benumbed with cold. They were nineteen thousand two 

 hundred feet above the level of the sea. 



The belt of clouds closed again, and the peak was 

 lost. The mist grew thicker and thicker, and everything 

 indicated a storm. There was nothing left them but to 

 descend. Halting long enough to collect a few specimens 

 of the rock they retraced their steps. A storm of hail 

 overtook them, but as they descended into a lower atmo- 

 sphere it changed into snow. When they reached the 

 little lake of Yana-Cocha, where they had left their mules, 

 they found the ground covered with snow several inches 

 deep. Before dusk they reached the Indian village of 

 Calpi, and were entertained that night by the priest. 



So ended the attempt to scale the summit of Chimbo- 

 razo. 



Not content with his defeat at Chimborazo and Coto- 

 paxi, Humboldt visited several other mountains and vol- 

 canoes in the neighbourhood of Quito. If he could not 



