334 CHIMBORAZO. 
ceeding that of Mont Blane. On a narrow ledge, 
which rises amidst the snows on the southern de- 
clivity, our travellers attempted on the 23d June to 
reach the summit. The point where they stopped. 
to observe the inclination of the magnetic meridian 
was more elevated than any yet attained by man, 
being 3609 feet higher than the summit of Mont 
Blanc, and more than 3714 feet higher than La 
Condamine and Bouguer reached in 1745 on the 
Corazon. The ridge to which they climbed, and 
beyond which they were prevented from proceeding 
by a deep chasm in the snow, was 19,798 feet above 
the level of the sea; but the summit of the moun- 
tain was still 1439 feet higher. The blood issued 
from their eyes, lips, and gums. The form of Chim- 
borazo is conical, but the top is not truncated like 
that of Cotopaxi, being rounded or semicircular in 
outline. 
While at Quito, Humboldt received a letter from 
the National Institute of France, .by which he was 
apprized that Captain Baudin had set out for New 
Holland by the Cape of Good Hope. He was obliged 
therefore to renounce all thoughts of joining the ex- 
pedition, although the hope of being able to meet it 
had induced him to relinquish his plan of proceeding 
from Cuba to Mexico and the Philippine Islands, 
and had led him upwards of 3452 miles southward. 
The travellers, however, consoled themselves with the 
thought of having examined regions over which the 
eye of science had never before glanced ; and, resolv- 
ing henceforth to trust solely to their own resources, 
after spending some months in exploring the Andes, 
they set out in the direction of Lima. 
They first pointed their course to the great River 
