Chimbobazo. 131 



and expanding as it mounts, till the wings of the condor, 

 fifteen feet in spread, glitter in the sun as the proud bird 

 fearlessly wheels over the dizzy chasm, and then, ascend- 

 ing above your head, sails o\'er the dome of Chimborazo.* 

 Could the condor speak, what a glowing description could 

 he give of the landscape beneath him when his horizon is 

 a thousand miles in diameter. If 



"Twelve fair counties saw the blaze from Malvern's lonely height," 



what must be the panorama frotii a height fifteen times 

 higher ! 



Chimborazo was long supposed to be the tallest moun- 

 tain on the globe, but its supremacy has been supplanted 

 by Mount Everest in Asia, and Aconcagua in Chile.f In 

 mountain gloom and glory, however, it still stands unrival- 

 ed. The Alps have the avalanche, " the thunderbolt of 

 snow," and the glaciers, those icy Niagaras so beautiful 

 and grand. Here they are wanting.:}; The monarch of 

 the Andes sits motionless in calm serenity and unbroken 

 silence. The silence is absolute and actually oppressive. 

 The road from Guayaquil to Quito crosses Chimborazo at 

 the elevation of fourteen thousand feet. Save the rush 



* Humboldt's statement that the condor flies higher than Chimborazo has 

 been questioned ; but we have seen numbers hovering at least a thousand feet 

 above the summit of Pichincha. Baron Muller, in his ascent of Orizaba, saw 

 two falcons flying at the height of full 18,000 feet ; Dr. Hooker found crows 

 and ravens on the Himalayas at 16,500 feet ; and flocks of wild geese are said 

 to fly over the peak of Kintschinghow, 22, 75G feet. 



t Mount Everest is 29,000 feet, and Aconcagua 23,200. Schlagintweit 

 enumerates thirteen Himalayan summits over 25,000 feet, and forty-six above 

 20,000. We have little confidence in the estimates of the Bolivian moun- 

 tains. Chimborazo has nearly the same latitude and altitude as the loftiest 

 peak in Africa, Kilima Njaro. 



t Humboldt ascribes the absence of glaciers in the Andes to the extreme 

 steepness of the sides, and the excessive dryness of the air. Dr. Loomis, 

 above quoted, mentions indications of glacial action — moraines, and polished 

 and striated rocks — on the crest of the Cordillera, between Peru and BoHvia, 

 lat. 21° S. 



