30 TRAVELS AMONGST TEE GREAT ANDES. chap. ii. 



(12,467 feet), and at 7 a.m. on the 15th, under the guidance 

 of an Indian, followed a rivulet enclosed between walls of rock, 

 "whose waters descend from the glacier;^ but very soon/' he 

 says, " we quitted this fissure, in order to direct our steps 

 towards Mocha. ^ We rose very gradually, and our mules 

 walked with difficulty through the debris of rock. The slope 

 then became very rapid, the ground was unstable, and the 

 mules stopped almost at every step. They no longer obeyed 

 the spur. The breathing of the animals was hurried and 

 panting. We were then at an elevation of 4808 metres (15,774 

 feet)."' They left the mules at this height, and '' began to 

 ascend a ridge which abutted on a very elevated point of the 

 glacier. It was mid-day. We went up slowly ; and as we got 

 higher on the snow the difficulty of breathing and walking 

 became more and more felt ; but we easily regained our 

 strength by stopping at every eight or ten steps. As we went 

 on, we felt extreme fatigue from the want of consistency in 

 the snowy soil, which gave way continually under our feet, 

 and in which we sank sometimes up to the waist. We were 

 soon convinced of the impossibility of proceeding. We went 

 to rest on a block of trachyte, at an elevation of 5115 metres 

 (16,781 feet). Thus, after much fatigue, we had only risen 

 307 metres (1007 feet) higher than the place whence we had 

 set out. At 6 o'clock we were back at the farm.'' 



They determined to make another attempt. '' The weather 

 had been splendid, and Chimborazo had never appeared so magni- 

 ficent. We resolved," he says, '' to try to ascend the steep side, 

 that is to say, by the slope facing the Arenal. We knew that 

 it was upon this side M. de Humboldt had ascended, and we 

 had been shewn at Riobamba the point he had reached, but it was 



1 It is curious to note that Boussingault here refers to a glacier, although 

 elsewhere he says that he has seen only 07te glacier in the Tropics, upon the mount- 

 ain Tunguragua. 



2 From this it appears that they made for the easternmost glacier of Chimborazo, 

 which is marked K upon my map. 



