202 TRAVELS A3I0NGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. x. 



hensive that we might attract the attention of these formidable 

 birds. They were numerous round about the mountain. When 

 the atmosphere permitted us to look below, we commonly saw a 

 dozen on the wing at the same time. They were seen daily, and 

 it was their ordinary and everyday habit to sail to and fro at a 

 moderate elevation above the ground they were watching, where 

 there were cattle and sheep. On no single occasion did we see a 

 Condor rise so high as the Second Camp (16,660 feet), nor, I think, 

 approach within a thousand feet of its level. 



Condors were very numerous upon the lower slopes of Anti- 

 sana. A score or more continually hovered over the pastures, 

 keeping ordinarily about 1500 feet from the ground — an elevation 

 which they have no doubt learned by experience is sufficient for 

 practical purposes. They did not '^dart' upwards or downwards, 

 but rose rather slowly ; and, when they had attained their usual 

 height, maintained themselves at it by nearly imperceptible move- 

 ments of the wings, and floated, balancing themselves in the air, 

 turning to this or that side, gradually descending ; and then, by 

 a few leisurely strokes, regained their former level ; continuing to 

 float and circle in this manner by the hour together. 



We did not either when upon or in the neighbourhood of the 

 summits of Chimborazo and Antisana, or near the summits of any 

 other mountain, see a Condor in our vicinity upon a single occa- 

 sion, and I think never observed one so high as 16,000 feet. I 

 believe Humboldt to have been mistaken in supposing that he 

 often saw the bird soaring above all the summits of the Andes. 

 Any one, however skilled in judging distances, may be deceived 

 in such a matter. In the accompanying diagram, let H stand for 

 Hacienda ; S for the summit of Antisana ; the line WR indicate the 

 level of our camp ; and A, B, a pair of Condors, hovering over the 

 lower slopes. An observer at H might naturally suppose the birds 

 to be higher than the summit, though to another at W it would 

 be apparent that they were below his level. While there may, 

 possibly, be occasions when the Equatorial Condor departs from its 



