CHAP. V. A RED-LETTER DAY. 107 



Illiniza was obviously the loftiest of the several mountains 

 which have been enumerated^ and I sent Jean-Antoine on Jan. 

 29-30 to reconnoitre it ; but as he reported that it was nearly 

 inaccessible from the north we turned our attentions to Corazon, 

 at first ludicrously under-estimating its distance. We went out 

 late one day, expecting to reach the top and come back again, 

 and did not even get to the foot of the actual peak. This, 

 however, was a red - letter day — we saw a dead donkey, under a 

 hedge about 1500 feet above Machachi ; and a few hundred feet 

 higher met a scorpion who was coming downhill.^ 



Corazon was ascended a century and a half ago by La Con- 

 damine and Bouguer. The former says expressly (at p. 58 of 

 vol. 1 of his Journal du Voyage) that they made the expedition 

 upon July 20, 1738.^ In the prosecution of their work, they 

 encamped twenty - eight days somewhere upon the mountain 

 (doubtless upon its eastern side), but there are no precise indi- 

 cations of the route which was taken by them, nor could any 

 information be obtained at Machachi, though a certain Ecuadorian 



1 It has been identified as Brotlieas subnitetis, Gervais, by Prof. E. Ray Lankester. 

 Scorpions were very seldom seen in the open, though they were abundant at 



Machachi, and could be found almost everywhere by turning- over stones. At 

 Quito, too,- they were numerous in old walls. But, throughout the entire journey,, 

 at all our upper camps Ave did not discover a single one, and they could hardly 

 have been overlooked, as the ground was always levelled for the establishment 

 of the tents. It is probable, therefore, that 12,000 feet is about the upper limit 

 of the range of the scorpion in Ecuador. 



2 " Un vent froid et piquant nous couvrit en peu de temps de verglas : il nous 

 fallut en plusieurs endroits gravir contre le rocher, en nous aidant des pieds et 

 des mains : enfin nous atteignimes le sommet. . . . Ce sommet etoit eleve de 

 250 toises au dessus de notre signal, et surpassoit de 40 le Pic de Pitchincha, ou 

 nous avions campe I'annee precedente ; aussi le mercure etoit-il plus bas d'environ 

 deux lignes au Coragon: il s'y soutenoit a 15 pouces 10 lignes. Personne n'a vu 

 le barometre si bas dans I'air libre; et vraisemblablement personne n'a monte a 

 ime plus grande hauteur : nous etions 2470 toises au dessus du niveau de la mer." 



In Histoire de VAcademie Royale des Sciences (annee 1746), Paris, 1751, in a list 

 of the highest mountains of 'the Province of Quito,' this mountain is entered 

 "El Coragon, la plus grande hauteur ou I'on ait monte." 



