360 REVIEWS. 
Chimborazo was long supposed to be the tallest mountain on the globe, but ds X 
has been supplanted by NAR CR verest in Asia, and Aconcagua in Chile, In mo n glo 
and glory, howeren, » still sta nds unrivaled. The Alps have the avalanche, Avg ensi 
Niaga 
of snow," g * ras » beautiful and gr run. eve they are wanting. 
The monarch of the ionl y n silence. ‘The silence 
is absolute and actually oppressive. Tl Quit t 
the elevation of 14,000 feet. Save the rush of the trade wind iii the afternoon, as it sw 
o 
the roar of t ma, nor the m waters. Mid never ent. You 
can almost hear the globe turning o; s axis, The a tim en the monarch deigne 
speak, and € with a voice of se for the lava on its sides is an isthaec T volcanic 
activity. But eve o has sat 
2 sullen silence, ‘satisfied to look ‘from his throne of clouds o'er half the ears There is 
mething very suggest ve in this silence of Chimbor: razo. It was once full of noise and fury; 
The Suthors description of the great crater of Pichincha is alike inter- 
esting. The naturalist will enjoy the sketches of animal and vegetable 
life, and the visio geology and anthropology of the varied tracts 
passed over 
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with hints about the best routes, the expenses, the best outtit, and the 
precautions and dangers, with a final word on the consolations of travel: 
dangers: First, from the people, Traveling is as safe in Ecuador as in New York, 
and eid than a Missouri. There are n picos nish banditti, though some places, as Chambo, 
ani ise t a penni : 
P 
e ut no more so in ador tha an vein e We have tr rave elled from Guayaquil to Da- 
T Hah PRE E otis. eso ee P 
"Secondly, from brases s. Some 
af- 
sreveliet woua have us infer that it is impossibl irinS g“ 
onatel ined by pent, T g upon by a Jaguar, or bitt: jig 
i y sand-heap and pi der ev y st ' (Edinburgh "Review xliii, 310). Pa- 
x “he paucity « of animal life. We were two months on the ‘Andes (August and Septem ber) 
before we saw alive snake, They are plentiful in the wet season in cacao plantations; but the 
a 
majority harm Pi ell, who particularly studied the reptiles of India, found that 
out of forty-three specles which he e ined not more than seven had poi s fangs; a 
ir E. Tei t, a long residence in Ceylon, declared he had never — e vs eue of 
by the bite of a snake. owever, that the num of 
mber 
us species are greater in South America than in any other part of ni wise ped A is 
* Mount Everest is 29,000 feet, and Aconcagua 23.200. Schlagintweit enumerates thirt 
cy —X over 25,000 feet, and "Ms above 20,000. OM have little ret redu s 
the Bolivian mountains, Chimborazo has nearly the same latitude and alti- 
