"The Field of Stones." 141 



Quito three feet deep with ashes and stones, while boihng 

 water and bitumen descended in torrents. In 1867 the 

 cohnnn of smoke did not rise above the crest of the cra- 

 ter, but the volcano has lately been showing signs of activ- 

 ity, such as it has not exhibited since the last grand erup- 

 tion two centuries ago. On the 19th of March, 1868, de- 

 tonations were audible at Quito, and three days after there 

 were more tliunderings, with a great column of vapor visi- 

 ble from Chillo, twelve miles to the east. These phenom- 

 ena were accompanied by an unusual fall of rain. Since 

 the great earthquake of August 16th, Pichincha has con- 

 tinued to send forth dense columns of black smoke, and 

 so much fine sand that it is not possible to reach the cra- 

 ter. The solid products of Pichincha since the Conquest 

 have been chiefly pumice, coarse-grained and granular tra- 

 chyte, and reddish j)orphyroid trachyte. The roads lead- 

 ing to Quito cut through hills of pumice-dust. On the 

 plain of lilaquito and in the valley of Esmeraldas are vast 

 erratic blocks of trachyte, some containing twenty-five cu- 

 bic yards, having sharp angles, and in some cases a polish- 

 ed, imstriated surface. M. Wisse does not consider them 

 to have been thrown out of Pichincha, as La Condamine 

 and others have judged. It is true, as he says, that they 

 could not have come out of the present cone at a less an- 

 gle than 45°, for they would have hit the sides of the high 

 rocky rampart and rolled back again ; and at a higher angle 

 they would not have reached tlieir present location. But 

 we see no reason why they could not be the upper portion 

 of the solid tracliyte cone blown into the air at the great 

 eruption which cleared out this enormous crater. There is 

 a rumipamba, or " field of stones," around each of the Qiii- 

 tonian volcanoes. 



Leaving Pichincha, we travel northward along the bat- 

 tlemented Andes, passing by the conical mountains of 



