QUITO. 315 



during the ascent. We delayed no longer than sufficed for 

 collecting fragments of rock as specimens of the mountain 

 structure. We foresaw that in Europe we should frequently 

 be asked for " a fragment from Chimborazo" 



4 When we were at a height of about 17,400 feet, we en- 

 countered a violent hailstorm, which gave place to snow twenty 

 minutes before passing the limit of perpetual snow, and the 

 flakes were so thick that the ridge was soon covered several 

 inches deep. The danger would indeed have been great had 

 the snow overtaken us, at a height of 18,000 feet. At a 

 few minutes past two we reached the spot where we had left the 

 mules.' l 



When the measurements of the height of the Himalayas, which 

 created so much interest a quarter of a century afterwards, were 

 undertaken by some English travellers, Humboldt wrote ; in a 

 humorous strain' to Berghaus 2 in November, 1828 : 'I have 

 all my life imagined that of all mortals I was the one who 

 had risen highest in the world I mean on the slopes of 

 Chimborazo! .... and have felt some pride in this eleva- 

 tion ! It was therefore with a certain feeling of envy that I 

 saw the announcement of the results obtained by Webb and 

 his companions with regard to the mountains of India. I have 

 consoled myself over the achievements on the Himalayas 

 by supposing that it was through my labours in America that 

 the English received the first impulse to direct more attention 

 to the snowy mountains than had been given for the last century 

 and a half.' 



We will complete Humboldt's description of the journey 

 by the following extracts from a letter to Delambre, dated 

 Lima, November 25, 1802 : 3 



4 Your letter has been two years in trying to find me among 

 the Cordilleras of the Andes. I received it the day after 

 making my second expedition to the crater of Pichincha. This 



1 Chimborazo has since been ascended by Boussingault and Hall, on 

 December 16, 1831, who reached the height of 19,692 feet; by Jules 

 Bourrier, in the years 1849 and 1850 j and by Jules RSmy and Brenckley, 

 to the height of 21,457 feet, on November 3, 1856. The height of the 

 mountain is, according to Humboldt, 21,460 feet. 



2 ' Briefwechsel A. von Humboldt's mit Heinrich Berghaus/ vol. i. p. 208. 



3 'Annales du Mus. d'Hist.jmtur.' An XI. (1803) vol. ii. p. 170, 



