158 Miscellaneous. 



immense valleys, when some light vapors, which at first appeared 

 only like spiders webs on the sides of the mountain, soon began 

 to detach themselves in the form of white flakes, stretching nearer' 

 and nearer to each other, till they at last arranged themselves like 

 a girdle along the horizon. 



'' All of a sudden, about eight o'clock, this curtain enlarged 

 itself, and approached Chimborazo ; then in a few minutes it 

 mounted to us, thin at first, but becoming perceptibly more dense- 

 We no longer could perceive the summit. We continued, how- 

 ever, to mount upwards, enticed by the hope of attaining our ob- 

 ject much more easily than we had supposed on leaving our en- 

 campment. 



" The fog continued to increase ; we could not see twenty paces 

 from us. At half-past nine, it had become so thick that it was 

 almost as dark as night at the distance of a few metres. Confi- 

 dent of finding our footsteps again to guide our descent, we tra- 

 velled on with additional stubborness ; but we had every moment 

 to examine the compass, in order to avoid a precipice which we 

 had left on our right before reaching the terminal depression by 

 which we resolved to gain the summit. 



" It seemed to us that the declivity became less steep, we 

 breathed more freely, and walked with less effort. Some dull 

 detonations began at intervals to be heard in the distance. At 

 first we ascribed them to the explosions of Cotopaxi ; but soon 

 reverberating peals, such as are heard only in the vicinity of the 

 equator, convinced us that thunder was rolling in the lower 

 regions. A terrible storm was in preparation. 



" In the fear that the hail or snow would efface the marks of 

 our feet, and thereby expose us to the risk of losing ourselves in 

 the descent, we determined, with regret, to halt for a while. We 

 hastened to kindle our chuquiragua wood, in order to melt the 

 snow in our coffee-pot. At ten o'clock, the thermometer which, 

 at five feet above the snow, indicated 1*7, was plunged in boiling 

 water where the mercury stood at 77*5. 



" At five minutes past ten, our observations terminated, and we 

 began to descend with giant strides in order to regain our en- 

 campment as speedily as possible. We arrived there in the midst 

 of the thick fog about an hour after noon. The thunder rolled 

 almost without interruption, the flashes of lightning describing 

 dazzling zigzags around us, never seen elsewhere so distinctly 

 defined except in pictures. 



