132 The Andes and the Amazon. 



of the trade wind in the afternoon, as it sweeps over the 

 Andes, not a sound is audible ; not the hum of an insect, 

 nor the chirp of a bird, nor the roar of the puma, nor the 

 music of running waters. Mid-ocean is never so- silent. 

 You can almost hear the globe turning on its axis. There 

 was a time when the monarch deigned to speak, and spoke 

 with a voice of thunder, for the lava on its sides is an evi- 

 dence of volcanic activity. But ever since the morning 

 stars sang together over man's creation, Chimbo has sat in 

 sullen silence, satisfied to look " from his throne of clouds 

 o'er half the world." There is something very suggestive 

 in this silence of Chimborazo. It was once full of noise 

 arid fury ; it is now a comjoleted mountain, and thunders no 

 more. How silent was Jesus, a completed character ! The 

 reason we are so noisy is that we are so full of wants ; we 

 are unfinished characters. Had we perfect fullness of all 

 things, the beatitude of being without a want, we should 

 lapse into the eternal silence of God. 



Chimborazo is a leader of a long train of ambitious crags 

 and peaks ; but as he who comes after the king must not 

 expect to be noticed, we will only take a glimpse of these 

 lesser lights as we pass up the Western Cordillera, and then 

 down the Eastern. 



The first after leaving the monarch is Caraguairazo. The 

 Indians call it " the wife of Chimborazo." They are sepa- 

 rated only by a very narrow valley. One hundred and sev- 

 enty years ago the top of this mountain fell in, and torrents 

 of mud flowed out containing multitudes of fishes. It is 

 now over seventeen thousand feet high, and is one of the most 

 Alpine of the Quitonian volcanoes, having sharp pinnacles 

 instead of the smooth trachytic domes — usually double 

 domes — so characteristic of the Andean summits. And 

 now we pass in rapid succession numerous picturesque 

 mountains, some of them extinct volcanoes, as Iliniza, pre- 



