MOUNTAINS OF ECUADOR. 



231 



Fig. 88. — DoTTBLE Chain of Ecuadoeea.n Volcanoes. 



Scale 1 : 4,500,000. 



more difficult access, terminating in a nearly vertical wall about 820 feet high, 

 which has to be scaled by clambering up narrow gorges excavated by the rains 

 and avalanches. La Condamine and Bouguer resided twenty-two days on 

 Corazon, ascending to the sum- 

 mit, which was long supposed 

 to be the highest elevation 

 reached by man. The terminal 

 caldera (" cauldron ") is the 

 deepest yet discovered in the 

 Andes, 3,950 feet, according to 

 Reiss's measurement. 



Illiniza, with its twin ice- 

 capped peaks, is nearly always 

 wrapped in mist, so that a clear 

 vista is seldom obtained. Whym- 

 per, who passed seventy- eight 

 days in the neighbourhood, 

 never got more than a partial 

 view, or a short glimpse of the 

 summit. He tried to clamber 

 to the top, on all fours, so to 

 say, but had to give up the 

 attempt, being intercepted by 

 huge séirœs* some of which 

 showed clean walls of ice, appa- 

 rently 200 feet high, lurching 

 forward as if ready to fall, and 

 separated by crevasses from 20 

 to 25 feet across. 



Farther south rises Quilotoa, 

 whose crater is flooded by a 

 tarn at a temperature of 61° 

 Fahr. or 14° above the surround- 

 ing atmosphere. According to 

 Velasco, an eruption of lavas 

 occurred in 1725, when flames 

 were seen to shoot up from the 

 middle of the lake. 



Beyond Quilotoa follow other less elevated cones, bristling on the slopes of 

 broad paramos, whence branches off south-westwards a third cordillera, with 

 peaks scarcely lower than those of the main range. 



78' V/est or ureenwich 



62 Miles. 



* Séracs Rre the solid cubical blocks into which glaciers are sometimes broken, owing to steep 

 gradients or other cmties. The fragments are often separated by very large crevasses, rendering the 

 ascent extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible. — Ed. 



