140 The Axdes and the A^iazon. 



exhaling steam, black smoke, and snlpliurons gas. The 

 temperature of the vapor just within the fumarole is 184°, 

 water boiling beside it at 189°. The central vent, or cliim- 

 nev, gives forth a sound like the violent bubbling of boil- 

 ing water. As we sat on this fiery mount, surrounded bj 

 a circular rampart of rocks, and looked up at the immense 

 towers of dark dolerite which ran up almost vertically to 

 the height of twenty-five hundred feet above us, musing 

 over the tremendous force which fashioned this awful am- 

 phitheatre — spacious enough for all the gods of Tartarus 

 to hold high carnival — the clouds which hung in the thin 

 air around the crest of the crater pealed forth thunder 

 after thunder, which, reverberating fi'om precipice to prec- 

 ipice, were answered by the crash of rocks let loose by the 

 storm, till the whole mountain seemed to tremble like a 

 leaf. Such acoustics, mingled with the flash of lightning 

 and the smell of brimstone, made us believe that we had 

 fairly got into the realm of Pluto. It is the s^^ot where 

 Dante's Inferno ought to be read. 



Finishing our observations, and warming our dinner 

 over the steaming crevices, we prepared to ascend. The 

 escape from this horrid hole was more perilous than the 

 entrance, and on reaching the top we sang, yA\\\ grateful 

 hearts, to the tune of " Old Hundred," 



"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." 



We doubt whether that famous tune and glorious dox- 

 ology were ever sung so near to heaven. 

 The second line, 



"Praise him all creatm'es here below," 



had a strange meaning fifteen thousand feet high. 



There have been five eruptions of Pichincha since the 

 Conquest. The last was in 1660; that of 1566 covered 



