284 RIDGE OF THE ANDES. 



CHAP.XXIIL covered the surface ; and our travellers, at the port ot 

 Guayaquil, 179^ miles distant, heard day and night the 

 noises proceeding from it, like discharges of a battery. 

 Fonn and This celebrated mountain is situated to the south-east 



positioii. ^^ Quito, at the distance of 41 miles, in the midst of the 

 Andes. Its form is the most beautiful and regular of 

 all the colossal summits of that mighty chain ; being a 

 perfect cone, which is covered with snow, and shines 

 with dazzling splendour at sunset. No rocks project 

 through the icy covering, except near the edge of the 

 crater, which is surrounded by a small circular wall. 

 In ascending it is extremely difficult to reach the lower 

 boundary of the snows, the cone being surrounded by 

 deep ravines ; and, after a near examination of the 

 summit, Humboldt thinks he may assert that it would 

 be altogether Impossible to reach the brink of the crater. 

 Chains of the ^^ ^^'^^ mentioned that, in the kingdom of New 

 Andes. Grenada, the cordilleras of the Andes form three chains, 



in the great longitudinal valleys of which flow two 

 large rivers. To the south of Popayan, on the table- 

 land of Los Pastos, these three chains unite into a single 

 group, which stretches far beyond the equator. This 

 group, in the kingdom of Quito, presents an extraordi- 

 Retnarkabie. ^^^y appearance from the riv(ir of Chota, the most 

 appearance, elevated summits being arranged in two lines, forming 

 as it were a double ridge to the cordilleras. These 

 summits served for signals to the French academicians 

 when employed in the measurement of an equinoctial 

 degree. Bouguer considered them as two chains, sepa- 

 rated by a longitudinal valley ; but this valley Humboldt 

 views as the ridge of the Andes itself. It is an elevated 

 plain, from 8858 to 9515 feet above the level of the sea ; 

 and the volcanic summits of Pichincha, Cayambo, 

 Cotopaxi, and other celebrated peaks, are, he thinks, so 

 many protuberances of the great mass of the Andes. 

 In consequence of the elevation of the territory of 

 <iuito, these mountains do not seem so high as many of 

 mucli inferior altitude rising from a lower basis. 



On Chimljorazo the line marking the inferior limit of 



