138 The Andes and the Amazon. 



The crater of Picliinclia has a sharp, serrated edge, 

 which, happily for Quito, is broken down on the west side, 

 so that in the next eruption the volcano will doubtless pour 

 its contents into the wilds of Esmeraldas. The highest 

 pinnacle is 15,827 feet ; so that the mountain just enters 

 the region of perpetual winter. "Water boils at 185°. The 

 summit is generally bare, though snow is always found in 

 the clefts of the rocks. It is not compact or crystalline, 

 but resembles a conglomerate of little hailstones.* Out of 

 the mingled snow and pumice-dust rise a few delicate 

 flowers, particularly the violet Sida PiGhinchensis, the 

 same which we had observed on the side of Chimborazo. 

 Think of gay flowers a thousand feet higher than the top 

 of Mont Blanc ! 



The first to reach the brink of the crater were the 

 French Academicians in 1742. Sixty years after, Hum- 

 boldt stood on the summit. But it was not till 1844 that 

 any one dared to enter the crater. This was accomplished 

 by Garcia Moreno, now President of Ecuador, and Sebas- 

 tian Wisse, a French engineer. Humboldt pronounced 

 the bottom of the crater " inaccessible, from its great depth 

 and precipitous descent." We found it accessible, but ex- 

 ceedingly perilous. The moment we prepared to descend 



* The snow on the top of Mont Blanc is like dry dust ; in Lapland, in open 

 places, it consists of hexagonal crystals, and is called by the inhabitants 

 " sand-snow." The French and Spanish mathematicians, Bouguer, La Con- 

 damine, and UUoa, in their story of ascending Piehincha, give a long and 

 dreadful account of their suiferings from cold and rarefied air; "whilst eat- 

 ing, every one was obliged to keep his plate over a chafing-dish of coals, to 

 prevent his food from freezing. " The traveler nowadays finds only a chill- 

 ing wind. This rise of temperature, coupled with the fact that La Con- 

 damine (17-15), Humboldt (1802), Boussingault (1831), and Wisse (1863) 

 give to Quito a decreasing altitude, inclines us to believe, with Boussingault, 

 that the Andes are sinking. Since the activity of the volcano in 1868, the 

 summit has been so warm that the snow has totally disa])peared. Ice-crean; 

 has in consequence risen in price in Quito, as snow must be brought from 

 Sincholagua, four days' journey. 



i 



