138 TRAVELS A3WNGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. vii. 



lying dead upon their backs/ Both upon the plain and some dis- 

 tance up the cone I found another nearly allied beetle {PlatyccBlia 

 nigricauda), about an inch long, which also proves to be a new 

 species ; ^ but the Colpodes, that were so numerous at great heights 

 upon the other Andes of the Equator, and the snouted Chirculios, 

 which were found in many places close up to the snow-line, were 

 entirely absent here.^ 



Dotted over the plain and its surroundings, perched on the 

 tops of hillocks, or on slopes where they could not have been 

 transported by water, as far as four or five miles from the crater, 

 there were many rounded masses of scoriaceous lava, from a few 

 inches up to five or six feet in diameter, having the appearance 

 of bombs thrown out during eruptions.* The plain, however, was 

 not cut up, and appeared to have almost entirely escaped visita- 

 tion by the floods that careered down the cone in 1877. This, no 

 doubt, was due to the Yanasache lava ^ (the most prominent lava 

 stream on this side) dividing the floods, and sending them away 

 to the right and left. We steered for this lava, and, finding it 

 too rugged for our mules, passed round its base (13,455 feet), and 

 came to a valley filled with drifted ash, upon its farther or 

 southern side, leading directly towards the summit. Easy enough 

 to man, it proved very laborious ground for our team, and at 



1 Though they were standing head downwards, closer inspection might have 

 shewn that they were emerging hindquarters first from the sandy soil. This beetle 

 moved very sluggishly, ^ i^upp^ App., p, 30. 



3 Eighteen species of the genus Colpodes were obtained on the journey between 

 the heights of 13,000 and 15,800 feet, out of which sixteen species are new to science. 

 These are described by Mr. H. W. Bates in the Supplementary Appendix, pp. 13-22. 



4 Our natives scouted this idea, though familiar with the fact that Cotopaxi 

 ejects myriads of fragments of smaller size, in such quantities as to turn day into 

 night. The same incredulity Avas exhibited by the tambo-keeper at Machachi, and 

 the man at S. Aiia. They had never known anything more than two or three 

 inches in diameter to be projected as far as their localities, and could not be got 

 to believe that larger masses might fall closer to the mountain. 



6 I follow Von Thielmann in using this name. I did not hear it employed by 

 the natives. 



