AT THE FOOT OF CULMEOEAZO. 215 



below the line of perpetual snow. Its formation seems 

 to indicate a glacial origin ; it appears like the vast termi- 

 nal accumulation of some glacier that may have flowed 

 down the slopes of Chimborazo during a period when the 

 snow-line was lower than at present, We now find it upon 

 the equatorial Andes at 15,748 feet, while in latitude 18° 

 south it is 17,000 feet, and in Tierra del Fuego it descends 

 to Avithin 3,500 to 4,000 feet of the sea. The elevation of 

 the line over a thousand feet, as we proceed southward 

 from the equator, is caused by the arid nature of the Peru- 

 vian coast. South of Concepcion, latitude 37°, the climate 

 changes, as is marked by the forests which there cover the 

 base of the Andes, and the sno.w-line rapidly descends, 

 until in latitude 40° it lies at an elevation of only 6,000 

 feet. At great heights snow is probably not thawed, but 

 evajjorated. Darwdn was informed that, during an unusu- 

 ally long and warm summer, the snow, doubtless removed 

 by evaporation, entirely disappeared from Aconcagua, the 

 highest peak of the Andes. 



It is a dreary trail that leads over the icy foot of Chim- 

 borazo. We shall not soon forget the feeling of utter deso- 

 lateness experienced while crossing that mountain-waste. 

 Having lingered behind to collect specimens of the few 

 Alpine plants that outlive the cold of those bleak heights, 

 we became separated from the party and its Indian guides, 

 and for eight hours rode companionless over the dreary 

 Arenal and a lonely paramo. Upon the former all traces 

 of vegetation finally disappeared ; a more stern desolation 

 the imagination could not j^icture. Occasionally the clouds 

 would gather and drive fiercely over the barren slopes. 

 It is Nature, in such solitudes as these — 



" Sucli majesty of lofty loneliness " — 



that stirs the deepest feelings of the soul. 



While upon the summit of the Andes, we could not 



