578 The Andes and the Amazons. 



pact blue ice, inclined from 35° to 40° ; but fortunately it 

 was not smooth, but covered with myriads of points or ici- 

 cles three or four inches high. Scrambling over this, and 

 climbing over and between walls, some of immense size, 

 suddenly he reached the edge of the crater. At the same 

 moment a cloud, which had hovei'ed over the summit, dis- 

 persed, and for the first time human eyes looked into the 

 profound crater of far-famed Cotopaxi. " I confess" (says 

 the doctor) " an unutterable satisfaction in having accom- 

 plished this feat, the ascent of the highest active volcano 

 on the globe." 



He had reached the western part of the southern lip. 

 The crater presented an elliptical form, the major axis ly- 

 ing north and south. The stones, which were continually 

 falling in from all sides, but especially from the west side, 

 rolled together as to the bottom of a funnel. There were 

 no signs of a level bottom. The depth, roughly estimated, 

 appeared to be 1500 feet. The side of the funnel least 

 inclined, and by which alone it is possible to descend, is 

 the southwest ; but here are large f uraaroles sending forth 

 dense masses of vapor charged with gas, and having a 

 temperature of 156°. Around these fumaroles were 

 masses of sulphur, and a deposit of gypsum mixed with 

 chloride of lime. This is of great interest, as being the 

 first instance of a chloride being found among the prod- 

 ucts of the South American volcanoes. Humboldt thought 

 that the absence of hydrochloric acid was a characteristic 

 of the New World volcanoes. The barometer gave 19,660 

 feet as the altitude, while the doctor's trigonometrical ob- 

 servations, repeated at various times from independent 

 bases in the valley, had given him 19,496 as the height of 

 the north peak, and 19,427 for the southern. Both results 

 exceed the altitude estimated by other travelers. Hum- 

 boldt made it 18,880 feet. 



