LAST VIEW OF THE ANDES, 287 



zons ; so that we knew, when we, some time before, bade 

 farewell to the Andes, that the first mountains which would 

 cheer us would be our own native hills. Imagine, then, 

 the surprise and delight with which, as the sun arose upon 

 the 28th of November, we saw it faintly tracing to the 

 westward the outlines of the Cordillera, and the beautiful 

 shaft of Cotoj^axi, seemmg lofty as ever, though now two 

 hundred miles distant. We had bidden adieu long since 

 to the volcanoes of the Andes, thinking we had seen them 

 for the last time, so that it was with double pleasure we 

 once more recognized the familiar form of our favorite, 

 Cotopaxi ; which did not now, as when we looked uj) its 

 snowy sides from its foot, appear cold and stern, but 

 through the long distance of the heated tropics it threw 

 a warm and softened look. The rising mist soon drew a 

 light veil over it, and shut out our last view of the Andes, 

 The scene naturally recalled our first view of Chimborazo 

 from the Pacific coast, as one evening, just at sunset, the 

 clouds lifted from the Cordilleras. Those views of the 

 Andes, onr first and last, as they welcomed us through the 

 opening clouds, in the bold, rugged outline of Chimborazo, 

 and bade us farewell through the beautiful form of Cotopaxi, 

 awakened emotions which the lapse of time will not lead 

 us to forget. "We feel such scenes, we take them with us 

 through life ; we recall them often, or, rather, they come up 

 imcalled ; but words will not permit us to tell them to others. 

 Our passage down the river was a pleasant'one. Din- 

 ing the day, when our Indians were not working at the 

 paddles, we would allow our craft to float just as suited 

 its own fancy, stern-foremost or sideways, and, as we 

 drifted thus leisurely with the current, two of our number 

 would put off with the little canoe, which, when not in 

 use, we kept lashed to the side of our " Zaparo," in pursuit 

 of birds, monkeys, and peccaries. The last-named {Dico- 

 tyles labiatiis), a species of wild-hog, in common with the 



