I:mbabuka. — Cayambi. 143 



CHAPTEE IX. 



The Volcanoes of Ecuador. — Eastern Cordillera. — Imbabura. — Cayambi. — 

 Antisana. — Cotopaxi, — Llangauati. — Tunguragua. — Altar. — Sangai. 



Is EAR tlie once busy city of Otovalo, utterly destroyed in 

 tlie late earthquake, the two Cordilleras join, and, turning 

 to the right, we go down the eastern range. The first in 

 order is Imbabura,* which poured forth a large quantity of 

 mud, with thousands of fishes, seven yeai*s before the sim- 

 ilar eruption of Caraguairazo. At its feet is the beauti- 

 ful lake of San Pablo, five miles in circumference, and 

 very deep. It contains the- little black fish {Phnelodes 

 cydopum) already referred to as the only species in the 

 valley, and the same that was cast out by Imbabm-a and 

 Caraguairazo. JSText comes the scpiare-topped Cayambi — 

 the loftiest mountain in this Cordillera, being nineteen 

 thousand five hundred feet. It stands exactly .on the equa- 

 tor, a colossal monument placed by the hand of Xature to 

 mark tlie grand division of the globe. It is the only snoAvy 

 spot, says Humboldt, which is crossed by the equator. Beau- 

 tiful is the view of Cayambi from Quito, as its enormous 

 mass of snow and ice glows A\^th crimson splendor in the 

 f arcAvell rays of the setting sun. Ko painter's brush could 

 do justice to the prismatic tints which hover around the 

 higher peaks. But this flood of glory is soon followed by 

 the pure whiteness of death. "Like a gigantic ghost 

 shrouded in sepulchral sheets, the moujitain now hovers in 

 the background of tlie landscape, towering ghastly through 

 the twilight until daijkness closes upon the scene." 



* From imha (fish), and Intra, to produce. Its name can not be older than 

 1G91, unless the mountain made similar eruptions before. It has frequently 

 ejected water. 



