574 The Andes and the Amazons. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



Cotopaxi : The First Ascent of the Great Volcano. 



The ascent of the loftiest active volcano on the globe 

 is no ordinary event. Its acliievement would have filled 

 many pages in the works of Humboldt. 



Standing fifty miles below the equator, and a hundred 

 west of the meridian of Washington, Cotopaxi is at once 

 the most beautiful and the most terrible of volcanoes. 

 From the valley of Quito it appears like a huge trunca- 

 ted cone, in altitude equaling five Vesuviuses piled upon 

 each other, its summit rising 4000 feet above the limit of 

 perpetual snow, its sides presenting alternate ridges and 

 gorges plowed by descending floods of water, and around 

 the base for miles heaps of ruins — -bowlders 20 feet 

 square, and volcanic ashes and mud 600 feet deep. Very 

 seldom does Cotopaxi wake up to intense activity, for, as 

 a rule, the higher a volcano, the less frequent its eruptions. 

 Generally the only signs of life are the deep, rumbling 

 thunders, and a cloud of smoke lazily issuing from the 

 ci'ater. 



The scientific world has long desired to know the struct- 

 ure of the crater of Cotopaxi. The great Humboldt, al- 

 though he attempted to climb Chimborazo, seemed to think 

 the top of this volcano unapproachable, and contented 

 himself by examining it through his telescope. Fifty 

 years ago, Colonel Hall, an American, tried it with scaling- 

 ladders, only to fail. In 1869, Dr. Felipe Sarrade, an 

 Ecuadorian, said he reached the summit, where he found 

 seven craters ; but nobody believed his story. The glory 



