IMBORAZO. 285 



perpetual snow is at a height somewhat exceeding that chap, xxiii 

 of Mont Blanc. On a narrow ledffe, which rises amidst t ■ ~T 



1 1- • ■,-, J-''"® of per- 



the snows on the southern declivity, our travellers petuaisnow. 



attempted on the 23d June to reach the summit. The 



pomt where they stopped to observe the inclination of 



the magnetic meridian was more elevated than any yet 



attained by man, being 3609 feet higher than the 



summit of Mont Blanc, and more than 8714 feet higher 



than La Condamine and Bouguer reached in 1745 on 



the Corazon. The ridge to which they climbed, and 



beyond which they were prevented from proceeding by 



a deep chasm in the snow, was 19,798 feet above the 



level of the sea ; but the summit of the mountain was 



still 1439 feet higher. The blood issued from their 



eyes, lips, and gums. The form of Chimborazo is 



conical, but the top is not truncated like that of Coto- 



paxi, being rounded or semicircular in outline. 



While at Quito, Humboldt received a letter from the conrse 

 National Institute of France, by which he was apprized pursued by 

 that Captain Baudin had set out for New Holland by 

 the Cape of Good Hope. He was obliged therefore to 

 renounce all thoughts of joining the expedition, although 

 the hope of being able to meet it had induced him to 

 relinquish his plan of proceeding from Cuba to Mexico 

 and the Philippine Islands, and had led him upwards of 

 3452 miles southward. The travellers, however, con- 

 soled themselves with the thought of having examined 

 regions over which the eye of science had never before 

 glanced ; and, resolving henceforth to trust solely to 

 their own resources, after spending some months in 

 exploring the Andes, they set out in the direction of 

 Lima. 



They first pointed their course to the great River course of 

 Amazon, visiting the ruins of Lactacunga, Hambato, journey. 

 and Riobamba, in a country the face of which was 

 entirely changed by the frightful earthquakes of 1797, 

 that destroyed nearly 40,000 of the inhabitants. They 

 then with great difficulty passed to Loxa, where in the 

 forests of Gonzanama and JMalacates they examined the 



