206 FROM PANAMA TO BODEGAS. 



snowy dome of Chimborazo appeared supported upon the 

 dark waves of the sierras — a fitting " crown of the An- 

 des." Vast snow-fields, broken by yawning crevasses, 

 indicated by heavy shading, mantled the summit of the 

 mountain: from the teeming tropics we looked up into 

 the snows of an arctic winter. Between the snow-line 

 and the zone of forest which covered the base of the 

 mountain were dark cliflfs, broken and scarred by black 

 lines — deep chasms in the mountain's sides. As the sun 

 sank lower, the golden hue of Chimborazo faded to an 

 ashen white, while its rough outlines were toned to softer 

 shadings ; and then the mists of evening again veiled the 

 Cordilleras. 



This sunset view of Chimborazo was followed by an- 

 other scene, if less grand, quite as beautiful. It was the 

 tropical scenery of the Guayas, beneath a moonlit night. 

 The soft reflections from the waters, and the weird gleam 

 of myriads of brilliant glow-flies, sparkling in the dark 

 forest-walls which crowded close to the river, seemed to 

 convert the stream into a fairy entrance to some fabled 

 land, that our reveries, into which we had fallen, pictured 

 as lying beyond, and of which we had caught a glimpse 

 in the fadinsr orlories of Chimborazo. 



