CHILL ISO 



on the plain, and the other on the base of a mountain, rising six or 

 seven thousand feet high. The sketch will give a better idea of it than 

 any description. The distance of Tupongati is about forty leagues. 





ATI 1TJ THE DISTATS CE 



Captains King and Fitzroy have made the height of this peak 

 several hundred feet above Chimborazo. The surrounding mountains, 

 though from ten to twelve thousand feet high and much nearer, sink 

 into insignificance when compared with it. Indeed all the objects are 

 upon such a grand scale, that they fail to excite the notice that they 

 would attract if situated elsewhere. On the top of this cuesta, Mr. 

 Couthouy obtained, in a torpid state, a small quadruped of the size of 

 a mouse, a very interesting specimen of the order Marsupia. A 

 description of it, with a spirited drawing by Mr. Peale, will be found 

 in the department of Mammalogy. 



The road over the cuesta was narrow, steep, and broken. It de- 

 scended into a plain, which was found well cultivated and watered by 

 a branch of the Aconcagua. 



The ridges on the northern side of the valley now became more 

 lofty and precipitous, exhibiting the columnar structure more distinctly. 

 The trap dikes were in some places four feet wide ; and in one place, 

 where the rock had been cut to form the road, fourteen dikes were 

 counted within three hundred feet. On their way up the valley, the 

 peon's horse gave out, and they were obliged to stop and hire another 

 at a farmer's house, who was called Evangelisto Celidono. This 

 rancho, twenty feet by ten, was rather better than others that weie 

 met with, but at the same time bore a strong resemblance to them. Jt 



