MOUNTAINS OF ECUADOR. 225 



The first mountain seen to the south-west of Cayambe, beyond the upland 

 combes where rise some of the headwaters of the Coca affluent of tbe Napo, is 

 Pambamarca, called also Francès-Urcu, or " French Mount," in memory of La 

 Condamine's geodetic studies. Then follow Guamani and other superb crests, not 

 however, reaching the snow-line, and to the east the snowy Sara-Urcu, scaled by 

 Whymper with his Swiss guides, the two Carrels, at the cost of almost super- 

 human eiîorts. 



According to Villavicencio, copied by Orton and others, Sara-Urcu has often 

 emitted flames, and in recent times (1843, 1856) vomited showers of ashes, to the 

 great alarm of the inhabitants of Quito. But some mistake must have been made 

 as to the focus of these eruptions, for Sara-Urcu, ascended by Whymper, is not a 

 volcano ; its rocks consist of a micaceous gneiss, which in some places has the 

 structure of slate. " I found that Sara-Urcu is only 15,502 feet high, that it is 

 not a volcano, and cannot have emitted fire and ejected ashes, and that it lies 

 considerably to the north of east of Quito at the distance of about 45 English 

 miles fnot 35 miles south by east of Quito, as stated by Yillavicencio^. Instead 

 of being the fifth in altitude of the Great Andes of the Equator, it proved to be 

 the lowest of all the snow -peaks, and considerably inferior in elevation to several 

 which scarcely reach the snow-line." * 



Antisana, one of the giants of the Eastern Cordillera, is a huge mountain mass, 

 13,000 feet high, whose base covers a space extending some 18 miles north and 

 south, and an equal distance east and west. It terminates in a long double-crested 

 dome entirely snow-clad for a vertical height of about 3,500 feet, and sends down 

 glaciers to the encircling combes. The ascent is extremely difficult and dangerous 

 owing to the enormous crevasses by which the upper icecap is fissured. From a 

 rent on the western slope flows a lava-stream 7 or 8 miles long, red on the surface 

 and here and there clothed with lichens ; three other streams of smaller size 

 meander over the flanks of the mountain. 



An eruption is said to have occurred in 1590, and at the time of Humboldt's 

 visit in 1802 a column of smoke rose above the upper crest. In 1880 Whymper 

 traversed a broad fissure in the ice, which emitted puffs of sulphurous vapour, 

 but he saw no trace of a crater. Nevertheless, Reiss fancied he detected one in 

 a depression on the east side, which is now filled by a thick glacier, and which 

 discharges a sulphurous torrent, the Piedra Azufre, one of the innumerable head- 

 streams of the Amazons. 



Between Antisana and Cotopaxi stands Sincholagua, which has certainly no 

 terminal crater, nor do the chronicles refer to any former eruptions from this 

 mountain. 



Cotopaxi — Llanganati. 



Amongst all the Ecuadorean giants Cotopaxi stands out as the "ideal volcano." 

 Of regular conic form with uniformly sloping flanks, Cotopaxi bears, not on a 



* "Whymper, op. cit., p, 251. 

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