AIGUILLES ON CHIMBORAZO. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE FIRST ASCENT OF CHIMBORAZO. 



The temperature in the night was unexpectedly low for so 

 moderate an elevation as that of the first camp. Only a week 

 before, at Tortorillas, we had experienced 56°. 5 at mid-day, and 

 I scarcely anticipated that the freezing-point would be touched 

 at the height of 14,000 feet in the neighbourhood of the Equator.^ 

 This sharp frost caused me to observe the nocturnal minima 

 at our subsequent camps, and, from the table that is given in 

 Appendix E, it will be seen that the minimum of the night of 

 Dec. 26 was below the average. It occurred upon an excep- 

 tionally fine night, with a clear sky. 



^ The only information I possessed upon temperatures of any sort at considerable 

 elevations in Ecuador was that published by Boussingault in the Comptes Rendus, 

 in 1879, vol. Ixxxviii, p. 1241. This relates to the Hacienda of Antisana (13,306 

 feet), and is referred to more particularly in my chapter upon Antisana. 



G 



