Sajstgai. 151 



No intermission has been noticed since the Spaniards first 

 saw it three hundred years ago. Strouaboli is the only vol- 

 cano that will compare with it. Its ashes are almost al- 

 ways falling on the city of Guayaquil, one hundred miles 

 distant, and its explosions, generally occurring every hour 

 or two^ are sometimes heard in that city. Wisse, in 1849, 

 counted 267 explosions in one hour. 



We have now completed the series. What an array of 

 snow-clad peaks wall in the narrow Valley of Quito — Na- 

 ture's Gothic spires to this her glorious temple ! If ever 

 there was a time when all these volcanoes were active in 

 concert, this secluded vale must have witnessed the most 

 splendid pyrotechnics conceivable. Imagine fifty mount- 

 ains as high as Etna, three of them with smoking craters, 

 standing along the road between New York and Washing- 

 ton, and you will have some idea of the ride down this gi- 

 gantic colonnade from Quito to Riobamba. If, as Ruskin 

 says, the elements of beautj are in proportion to the in- 

 crease of mountainous character, Ecuador is artistically 

 beaiiliful to a high degree. 



Here, amid these Plutonic peaks, are the energies of vol- 

 canic action best studied. The constancy of the volcanic 

 fires is a striking fact. First we have the deluges of sub 

 marine lavas, which were poured out long before the Andes 

 lifted their heads above the waters ; then alternate porphy- 

 ritic strata, f eldspathic streams, and gypseous exhalations ; 

 then, at a later day, floods of basaltic lava; next the old 

 tertiary eruptions; and, lastly, the vast accumulations of 

 boulders, gravel, ashes, pumice, and mud of the present day, 

 spread over the Yalley of Quito and the west slope of the 

 Cordilleras to an unknown depth beneath the sea. The in- 

 cessant eruptions of Sangai, and the frequent earthquakes, 

 show that the subterranean energy which heaved the Andes 

 is not yet expended. 



