TRUE VOLCANOES. 291 



prising traveller, Sebastian Wisse, 76 counted 70 still burning 

 orifices (fumaroles) around the great active cone of eruption 

 in the crater of Pichincha ; and I was myself a witness, 77 

 at the foot of the volcano in the Malpais del Llano de 

 Tetimpa, in which I had to measure a base-line, of an ex- 

 tremely distinct eruption of ashes from Popocatepetl. 



In the series of volcanoes of New Granada and Quito, 

 which in 18 volcanoes includes 10 that are still active, and is 

 about twice the length of the Pyrenees, we may indicate, from 

 ^rth to south as four smaller groups or subdivisions : 

 the Paramo de Ruiz and the neighbouring volcano of Tolima 

 (latitude, according to Acosta, 4 55' N.) ; Purace and Sotara, 

 near Popayan (lat. 2i) ; the Volcanes de Pasto, Tuquerres 

 and Cumbal (lat. 2 20' to 50') ; and the series of volcanoes 

 from Pichincha, near Quito, to the uniritermittently active 

 Sangay (from the equator to 2 South latitude). This last 

 subdivision of the active group is not particularly remarkable 

 amongst the volcanoes of the New World, either by its great 

 length, or by the closeness of its arrangement. We now 

 know, also, that it does not include the highest summit, for 

 the Aconcagua in Chili (lat. 32 390, of 23,003 feet, according 

 to Kellet, 23,909 feet, according to Fitzroy and Pentland, 

 besides the Nevados of Sahama (22,349 feet), Parincota 

 (22,030 feet), Gualateiri (21,962 feet), and Pomarape (21,699 

 feet), all from between 18 T and 18 25' south latitude, are 

 regarded as higher than Chimborazo (21,422 feet). Never- 

 theless, of all the volcanoes of the new continent, the vol- 

 canoes of Quito enjoy the most widely spread renown, for 

 to these mountains of the chain of the Andes, to this high 

 land of Quito, attaches the memory of those assiduous astro- 

 nomical, geodetical, optical, and barometrical labours, directed 

 to important ends, which are associated with the illustrious 

 names of Bouguer and La Condamine. Wherever intel- 

 lectual tendencies prevail, wherever a rich harvest of ideas 

 has been excited, leading to the advancement of several 

 sciences at the same time, fame remains as it were locally 

 attached for a long time. Such fame has in like manner 

 belonged to Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps, not on account 



? 6 Humboldt, Kleinere Schriften, Bd. i, s. 90. 



77 24th of January, 1804. See my Essai Politique sur la Nouvellt 

 Espagne, t. i, p. 166. 



u2 



