262 IX SIGHT OF the pacific. 



the volcano of Quito ; of the first grove of tree-ferns, and 

 of the Pacific Ocean. • The davs on which such wishes 

 are realized form epochs in life, and produce ineffaceable 

 impressions ; exciting feelings of which the vividness 

 seeks not justification by processes of reasoning." With 

 the longing which Humboldt felt for the first view of 

 the Pacific from the crests of the Andes, there mingled 

 the interest with which he had listened as a boy to the 

 narrative of the adventurous expedition of Vasco I^unez 

 de Balboa, the fortunate man who, followed by Francisco 

 Pizarro, first among Europeans beheld from the heights 

 of Quarequa, on the Isthmus of Panama, the eastern 

 T)art of the Pacific Ocean. 



When, after many undulations of the ground, on the 

 summit of the steep mountain ridge, the travellers finally 

 reached the highest point, the Alto de Guangamarca, the 

 heavens which had been long veiled became suddenly 

 clear: a sharp west wind dispersed the mist, and the 

 deep blue of the sky in the thin mountain air appeared 

 between narrow lines of the highest cirrhous clouds. The 

 whole of the western declivity of the Cordillera by Cho- 

 rillos and Cascas, covered with large blocks of quartz, 

 and the plains of Chala and Molinos as far as the sea 

 shore near Truxillo, lay beneath their eyes in astonishing 

 apparent proximity. They now saw for the first time 

 the Pacific Ocean itself; and they saw it clearly, forming 

 along the line of the shore a large mass from which the 

 light shone reflected, and rising in its immensity to the 

 well-defined horizon. 



They reached Truxillo, from whence they proceeded 

 southward along the sandy tracts that bordered the Pa- 

 cific, till they came to Lima. Near Truxillo Humboldt 



