339 



tain, and laid waste the neighbouring country. 

 This dreadful catastrophe was accompanied by 

 an earthquake, which, in the adjacent towns of 

 Hambato, and Llactacunga, swallowed up thou- 

 sands of inhabitants. 



A third form of the high tops of the Andes, 

 and the most majestic of the whole, is that of 

 Chimborazo, the summit of which is circular ; it 

 reminds us of those paps without craters, which 

 the elastic force of the vapours swells up in 

 regions where the hollow crust of the Globe is 

 mined by subterraneous fires. The aspect of 

 mountains of granite has little analogy with that 

 of Chimborazo. The granitic summits are flat- 

 tened hemispheres ; the trappean porphyry 

 forms slender cupolas. Thus on the shore of the 

 South Sea, after the long rains of winter, when 

 the transparency of the air has suddenly in- 

 creased, we see Chimborazo appear like a cloud 

 at the horizon ; it detaches itself from the 

 neighbouring summits, and towers over the 

 whole chain of the Andes, like that majestic 

 dome, produced by the genius of Michael An- 

 gelo, over the . antique monuments, which sur- 

 round the Capitol. 



