CXV1 NOTES. 



mined by Sebastian Wisse in December 1849. What La Condamine, at a 

 distance of 1 08 geographical miles, took for glowing lava, and even for an out- 

 pouring of burning sulphur and petroleum, were glowing rocks and masses of 

 scoria) following each other closely down the steep descent. (Kosmos, Bd. iv. 

 S. 303 (English edition, p. 258.) I have not seen on the Cotopaxi, any more 

 than on Tungarahua, Chimborazo, Pichincha, or on the Purace and Sotara near 

 Popayan, anything which could be regarded as narrow currents of lava having 

 flowed from those giant-mountains. The unconnected glowing masses of five or 

 six feet diameter, often containing obsidian, which have been ejected in eruptions 

 of Cotopaxi, have been carried by floods of melted snow and ice to far into the 

 plain, and these form partially radiating diverging lines. Elsewhere, La Con- 

 damine also says very truly : " Ces eclats de rocher, gros comme une chaumiere 

 d'lndien, forment des trainees de rayons qui partent du volcan comme d'un centre 

 commun." (Journal du Voyage a 1'Equateur, p. 1 60.) 



( 447 ) p. 309. Guettard's Memoir on extinct volcanoes was read at the Aca- 

 demy in 1752, therefore three years before La Condamine's journey to Italy, 

 but it was not printed until 1756 during that visit. (Sre p. 380.) 



( 44S ) p. 313. " II y a peu de volcans dans la chaine des Andes (said Von 

 Buch) qui aient ofiert des courants de laves, et jamais on n'en a vu autour des 

 volcans de Quito. L'Antisana, sur la chaine orientale des Andes, est le seul 

 volcan de Quito sur lequel M. de Humboldt ait vu pres dn sommet quelque chose 

 d'analogue a un courant de laves ; cette coule'e e'tait tout-a-fait semblant a de 

 Tobsidienne." (Descr. des lies Canaries, 1836, p. 468 and 488.) 

 ( 44B ) p. 315. Humboldt, Kleinere Schriften, Bd. i. S. 161. 

 ( 4SO ) p. 316. " Nous diffe'rons eritierement sur la pre'tendue coule'e d'Anti- 

 sana vers Pinantura. Je considere cette coule'e comme un soulevement re'cent 

 analogue a ceux de Calpi (Yana Urcu), Pisque et Jorullo. Les fragmens tra- 

 chytiques ont pris une epaisseur plus considerable vers le milieu de la coule'e. 

 Leur couche est plus epaisse vers Pinantura que sur des points plus rapproche's 

 d'Antisana. L'etat fragmentaire est un effet du soulevement local, et souvent 

 dans la Cordillere des.Andes les tremblements de terre peuvent Stre produits 

 par des tassements." (Lettre de M. Boussingault, en aout , 1 834.) Compare 

 Kosmos, Bd. iv. S. 219 (English edition, p. 170). In the description of his 

 ascent of Chimborazo (December 1831), Boussingault says: " The mass of the 

 mountain consists, in my view, of an enormous heap of fragments of trachyte 

 piled up on each other without any order. These fragments of a volcano, often 

 of enormous size, were elevated in a solid state, their edges are sharp and 

 nothing indicates a state of fusion or even of softening. Nowhere is there ob- 

 served on any of the equatorial volcanoes anything from which a stream of lava 





