430 HUMBOLDT S ATTEMPT TO ASCEND CHIMBORAZO. app. 



softness of the snowy mass prohibited such an attempt, and the nature of the 

 declivity rendered it equally impossible to scale the sides. 



" It was now one o'clock in the day. We fixed up the barometer with 

 great care, and found it stood at thirteen inches lliV lines. The tempera- 

 ture of the air was only three degrees below the freezing-point ; but from 

 our long residence in the tropics even this amount of cold seemed quite 

 benumbing. Our boots were wet through with snow-water, for the sand, 

 which here and there lay on the mountain ridge, was mixed with the 

 remains of former snow-drifts. According to the barometric formula given 

 by Laplace, we had now reached an elevation of 19,286 English feet, 



"We remained but a short time in this dreary waste, for we were soon 

 again enveloped in mist, which hung about us motionless. We saw nothing 

 more of the summit of Chimborazo, nor of the neighbouring snow mountains, 

 far less of the elevated plain of Quito. We were isolated as in a balloon ; a 

 few rock lichens were to be observed above the line of perpetual snow, at a 

 height of 16,920 feet ; the last green moss we noticed was growing about 

 2600 feet lower. A butterfly was captured by M. Bonpland, at a height of 

 15,000 feet, and a fly was observed 1600 feet higher ; both had been carried 

 up into the higher regions of the atmosphere by the currents of air originating 

 in the warmer plains below. 



" As the weather became increasingly threatening, we hurried down 

 along the ridge of rock, and from the insecurity of our footing found that 

 greater caution even w^as necessary than during the ascent. We delayed no 

 longer than sufficed for collecting fragments of rock as specimens of the 

 mountain structure. We foresaw that in Europe we should frequently be 

 asked for 'a fragment from Chimborazo.'' 



"When we were at a height of about 17,400 feet, we encountered a 

 violent hailstorm, which gave place to snow twenty minutes before passing 

 the limit of perpetual snow, and the flakes were so thick that the ridge was 

 soon covered several inches deep. The danger would indeed have been great 

 had the snow overtaken us at a height of 18,000 feet. At a few minutes past 

 two we reached the spot where we had left the mules." — Life of Humboldt, 

 by Karl Bruhns, vol. i, pp. 311-315, London, 1873. 



