THE WINDOWS OF GUALGATOC. 253 



tersected, and terminating to the north and west by a 

 deep and almost perpendicular precipice. The outline 

 of the mountain was broken by numerous tower-like 

 and pyramidal points. "Our mountain," said a rich 

 possessor of mines to the travellers, "stands there like 

 an enchanted castle." Grualgayoc reminded Humboldt 

 of the serrated crest of the Monserrat Mountains in Cata- 

 lonia, which he had visited before his departure for the 

 JSTew World. Besides being perforated to its summit by 

 many hundred galleries driven in every direction, this 

 mountain presented natural openings in the mass of the 

 siliceous rock, through which the intensely dark blue sky 

 of those elevated regions was visible to a spectator stand- 

 ing at the foot of the mountain. These openings were 

 called windows — the windows of Gualgayoc. Similar 

 windows were pointed out to the travellers in the walls of 

 the Volcano of Pichincha, and called by a similar name, — ■ 

 the windows of Pichincha. The strangeness of the view 

 was still farther increased by the numerous small sheds 

 and dwelling-houses, which nestled on the side of the 

 fortress-like mountain wherever a flat surface permitted 

 their erection. The miners carried down the ore in bas- 

 kets by very steep and dangerous paths to the places 

 where the process of amalgamation was performed. 



The travellers quartered themselves awhile near the 

 mines in the small mountain town of Micuipampa, which 

 was twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea, and 

 where, though only 6° 43' from the equator, water froze in 

 the house nightly throughout a large portion of the year. 

 In this desert devoid of vegetation lived three or four 

 thousand persons, who were obliged to have all their 

 means of subsistence brought from the warm valleys, as 



