THEY PIXE FOK THE SEA. 261 



down from an air-balloon into vacancy. Subsequently 

 when between Loxa and Guancabamba they reached the 

 Paramo de Guamini, from whence the mule-drivers had 

 confidently assured them that they should see beyond 

 the plain, beyond the low districts of Piura and Lamba- 

 jeque, the sea itself, which they so much desired to 

 behold, a thick mist covered both the plain and the dis- 

 tant sea shore. They saw only variously shaped masses 

 of rock alternately rise like islands above the waving 

 sea of mist, and again disappear. They were now 

 exposed to almost the same disappointment. As they 

 toiled up the mighty mountain side, with their expecta- 

 tions continually on the stretch, their guides, who were 

 not very well acquainted with the road, repeatedly pro- 

 mised them that at the end of the hour's march their 

 hopes would be realized. The stratum of mist which 

 enveloped them appeared occasionally to be about to dis- 

 perse, but at such moments their field of view was again 

 restricted by intervening heights. 



" The desire which we feel," says Humboldt, " to 

 behold certain objects does not depend solely on their 

 grandeur, their beauty, or their importance ; it is inter- 

 woven in each individual with many accidental impres- 

 sions of his youth, with early predilection for particular 

 occupations, with an attachment to the remote and dis- 

 tant, and with the love of an active and varied life. The 

 previous improbability of the fulfilment of a wish gives 

 besides to its realization a peculiar kind of charm. The 

 traveller enjoys by anticipation the first sight of the con- 

 stellation of the cross, and of the Magellanic clouds 

 circling round the Southern Pole; of the snow of the 

 Chimborazo, and the column of smoke ascending from 



