CHAP. VI. FIRST ASCENT OF COTOPAXI. 129 



Voyage Mstorique, give the quaint picture which I reproduce 

 herewith. 



There need be little wonder that there are so few exact ac- 

 counts of the great eruptions of Cotopaxi. No one lives in close 

 contiguity to the vent which is the natural channel of escape 

 for the imprisoned and compressed gases that work the mischief, 

 and thus the earlier admonitions of approaching eruptions often 

 pass unnoticed ; and when the mightier ones commence, every 

 person within sight or hearing, knowing too well either from ex- 

 perience or from tradition the results which are likely to ensue, 

 concerns himself more in safeguarding life and property than in 

 philosophical considerations of the forces of nature. 



Ecuadorians have left the investigation of their great volcano 

 to strangers. A century and a half ago, La Condamine proposed 

 to attempt its ascent, but had to abandon his project because no 

 one would accompany him. Humboldt, at the beginning of the 

 century, after entertaining the same idea, finally came to the 

 conclusion that it was impossible to reach the brink of the crater. 

 So far as I am aware, the first person to reach the summit was 

 Dr. W. Eeiss, of Berlin, on Nov. 27, 1872.' Starting from the 

 village of Mulalo, with ten natives, he appears first to have trav- 

 elled about north-east, and subsequently east-north-east. The 

 same route was taken by Dr. A. Stlibel, of Dresden, in March, 

 1873 ; ^ and, in September, 1877, the summit was reached by Dr. 

 T. Wolf, a Jesuit long resident in Ecuador, who started from the 

 same direction as the others,^ but adopted a more northerly line 

 of ascent, in consequence of finding that the route they had taken 

 on the actual cone had been rendered impassable by the eruption 



^ See Nature, April 10, 1873. I was informed in Ecuador that an ascent had 

 been made by a native of Latacunga, before Dr. Reiss, but I was unable to obtain 

 any evidence that such had been the case. 



2 An account in Spanish was published at Quito by Dr. Stiibel in the form of 

 a letter to the President of the Republic of Ecuador (see note, p. 96), and also 

 appeared in French in the Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie, Paris, 1874. 



3 An account was published by him in Spanish, at Guayaquil. 



