THE PAGE OF NATURE. 81 



dred feet of the summit of Chimborazo, the highest peak 

 of the Ancles. Strange it must have seemed to this 

 enterprising traveller to stand on that elevated spot, and 

 to see around and beneath him an epitome, as it were, 

 of what takes place on a grander scale over the whole 

 globe a condensed picture of all the climates of the 

 earth from the tropics to the poles, with all their differ- 

 ent zones or belts of vegetation. Above towered the 

 inaccessible summit in its everlasting shroud of stainless 

 snow, boldly relieved against the deep cloudless blue of 

 the tropical sky ; around him the bare and rugged 



Fio. 9. LECIDEA GEOGRAPHICA. 



trachytic rocks, adorned with the green crust of this 

 beautiful lichen, a few pale tufts of moss, or a solitary 

 flower drooping here and there its frail head from a 

 crevice ; immediately beneath Mm the green grass- clad 

 slopes, variegated with rainbow-coloured flowers and 

 stunted willow-like shrubs ; and far down in the valleys 

 at the base, a glowing gorgeous world of tropical luxuri- 

 ance palms and bananas and bamboos, dimly revealed 

 through the seething, sweltering vapours which perpetu- 

 ally surrounded them. 



