IM The Andes and the Amazon. 



Ten miles farther south is the bare-headed Guamani 

 range, over which passes the road to the wild Napo coun- 

 try.* The view from the crest is magnificent ; but, like 

 every grand panorama, eludes description. As we look 

 eastward over the beginnings of the mighty forest which 

 stretches unbroken to the Atlantic, the vast ridges, trend- 

 ing nortli and south, and decreasing in height as they in- 

 crease in distance, seem like the waves of a great ocean 

 rollmg toward the mountains. 



Near by stands Antisana in his snowy robe. This vol- 

 cano ranks next to Chimborazo in dignity. It has a double 

 dome, and an elevation of 19,000 feet. Snow of Dian pu- 

 rity covers it for over 3000 feet ; but, judging from the 

 enormous streams of lava on its sides, it must have been a 

 fierce volcano in ages past. The la\a streams are worthy 

 of the great mou-ntain from which they flowed. One of 

 them (called "Yolcan d'Ansango") is ten miles long and 

 five hundred feet deep, with an average slope of 15°. It is 

 a magnificent sight, as seen fi*om the surrounding paramo 

 — a stream of dark, ragged rocks coming down out of the 

 clouds and snows which cover the summit. The repre- 

 sentative products of Antisana are a black, cellular, vitre- 

 ous trachyte, a fine-grained, tough porphyroid trachyte, and 

 a coarse reddish porphyroid trachyte. An eruption, as late 

 as 1590, is recorded in Johnston's Phys. Atlas. Humboldt 

 saw smoke issuing from several openings in March, 1802. 



We ascended this volcano to the height of sixteen thou- 

 sand feet. On its side is the celebrated hacienda of Anti- 

 sana, which, more than sixty years ago, sheltered the great 

 Humboldt from the sleet and rain and blast of this lofty 

 region. It was a welcome refuge to us, for we had well 

 nigh perished with cold on the dreary paramo. It is one of 



* The culminating point of Guamani is Sara-urcu, a volcano which threw 

 out a vast quantity of ashes in 1 843 and 1856. 



