Imbabuka. — Cayambi. 143 



CHAPTER IX. 



The Volcanoes of Ecuador. — Eastern Cordillera. — Imbabura. — Cayambi. — 

 Antisana. — Cotopaxi. — Llanganati. — Tunguragua. — Altar. — Saiigai. 



Neak the ouce busy city of Otovalo, utterly destroyed in 

 the late earthquake, the two Cordilleras join, and, turning 

 to the right, we go down the eastern range. The first in 

 order is Imbabura,* which poured forth a large quantity of 

 mud, with thousands of fishes, seven years before the sim- 

 ilar eruption of Caraguairazo. At its feet is the beauti- 

 fid lake of San Pablo, five miles in circumference, and 

 very deep. It contains the- little black fish {Pimelodes 

 <yycloj)um) already referred to as the only species in the 

 valley, and the same that was cast out by Imbabura and 

 Caraguairazo. Next comes the square-topped Caj-ambi — 

 the loftiest mountain in this Cordillera, being nineteen 

 thousand five hundred feet. It stands exactly on the equa- 

 tor, a colossal monument placed by the hand of Nature to 

 mark the grand division of the globe. It is the only snowy 

 spot, says Humboldt, which is crossed by the equator. Beau- 

 tiful is the view of Caj^ambi from Quito, as its enormous 

 mass of snow and ice glows with crimson splendor in the 

 farewell rays of the setting sun. No painter's brush could 

 do justice to the prismatic tints which hover around the 

 higher peaks. But this flood of glory is soon followed by 

 the pure whiteness of death. "Like a gigantic ghost 

 shrouded in sepulchral sheets, the mountain now hovers in 

 the background of the landscape, towering ghastly through 

 the twilight xmtil darkness closes upon the scene." 



* From imba (fish), and hura, to produce. Its name can not be older than 

 1691, unless the mountain made similar eruptions before. It has frequently 

 ejected water. 



