322 TRAVELS A3I0NGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap, xviii. 



looked doubtfully. We took up the axes — he went farther off. Calls 

 were in vain, and finally he put his tail between his legs and bolted 

 down hill as hard as he could scamper. '^ No, my masters. Yoit 

 may go up, but /shall go down — no more snow-blindness for me." 



At 5.15 a.m., when tones began to change to detail, we left the 

 camp ; and this day, for once, the heavens seemed to smile upon 

 us. The sky was bright — the air serene ; and long before dawn, 

 sixty miles away, we saw the cone of Cotopaxi clear cut against a 

 cloudless horizon, and remarked how tranquil the great Volcano 

 looked, and that not a sign of smoke was rising from its crater.^ 

 Soon a cold wind sprang up. I lingered behind, to beat my hands 

 and feet, and whilst resting back against a rock, looking towards 

 the north, saw the commencement of an eruption. 



At 5.40 a.m. two puffs of steam were emitted, and then there 

 was a pause. At 5.45 a column of inky blackness began to issue, 

 and went up straight in the air with such prodigious velocity that 

 in less than a minute it had risen 20,000 feet above the rim of the 

 crater.^ I could see the upper 10,000 feet of the volcano/ and 

 estimated the height of the column at double the height of the 

 visible portion of the mountain. The top of the column, therefore, 

 was nearly forty thousand feet above the level of the sea. At that 

 elevation it encountered a powerful wind blowing from the east, 

 and was rapidly borne towards the Pacific ; remaining intensely 

 black, seeming to spread very slightly, and presenting the appear- 

 ance of a gigantic — i drawn upon an otherwise perfectly clear sky. 

 It was then caught by wind from the north, and, borne towards 

 us, appeared to spread quickly. 



Meanwhile the others progressed steadily over the snow-beds 

 and stony debris on the crest of the ridge, and I did not catch 

 them for nearly an hour. At 6.50 a.m. we tied up, as the snow 



1 This was the onl}^ occasion on which we saw the crater quite free from smoke 

 and steam during tlie wliole of our stay in Ecuador. 



2 I did not note the time it took to rise to this elevation. My impression is 

 that it was an affair of a few seconds. 



