VOLCANIC GROUPS. 239 



a stretch of one thousand miles, while those about Quito 

 are crowded upon a line of four hundred and seventy-two 

 miles. The group of Central America comprises the 

 greatest number, having twenty-nine volcanic peaks, 

 of which eighteen are still active. But Chili claims 

 the honor of having the highest mountain of tlie series, 

 Aconcagua, which rises 23,200 feet above the Pacific — 

 1,700 feet higher than Chimborazo, yet 6,000 feet below 

 the summit of the highest peak of the Himalayas. The 

 Peruvian and Bolivian group names the snowy peaks, 

 Gulateiri, Sahama, Sorata, and lUimani, that look down 

 upon the loftiest table-lands of the New World — the 

 Plateau of Bolivia. Here is Lake Titicaca,* lifted up in 

 the air to a height twice as great as the elevation of 

 Mount Washington. 



But the grandest of these groups is the one which cir- 

 cles, with its snow-mantled peaks, the valley of Quito. 

 The volcanoes of this cluster are found between Sangai, 

 two degrees south of the equator, and the Volcan de To- 

 Ihna, live degrees north, a distance, before stated, of four 

 hundred and seventy-two miles. They are set in two 

 lines, along or near the axes of the two main coi'dilleras, 

 into which the equatorial Andes are divided. Along the 

 Western Cordillera rise Caraguairazo, Iliniza, Pichincha, 

 and Cotocachi ; while fronting them in long line stand, 

 upon the Eastern Cordillera, eight noble peaks, stretching 

 from the fiery Sangai upon the south, to the beautiful 

 peak of Imbabura upon the north. About the centre of 

 this row, advanced a little out upon the plain, stands 

 Cotopaxi, the most symmetrical of Andean volcanoes. 



Grand did those mountains appear to us, as, having 



* The elevation of this lake is 12, '/OS feet above the ocean-level. It 

 empties its v/aters by El Desaguadero into Lake Aullagas, which has no 

 outlet, its waters being removed by evaporation. Both these lakes, like 

 Lake Valencia, in Venezuela, are undergoing rapid dcsiccatiou. 



