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extends itself like a wall of enormous height ; 

 and Quelendanna, which enters the boundary 

 of the eternal snows. It is in this part of the 

 Andes, that a longitudinal valley separates the 

 Cordilleras into two parallel chains. The bot- 

 tom of this valley is three thousand metres above 

 the level of the ocean, so that Chimborazo and 

 Cotopaxi, seen from the elevated plains of Lican 

 and Mulalo, appear no higher than the Col de 

 Geant and du Cramont, measured by Saus- 

 sure. As there is reason to suppose, that the 

 proximity of the ocean contributes to feed the 

 volcanic fire, the geologist is astonished to find, 

 that the most active volcanoes in the kingdom of 

 Quito, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, and Sangay, be- 

 long to the eastern chain of the Andes, and con- 

 sequently that which is farthest from the coasts. 

 The whole of the peaks, except Rucu-Pichincha, 

 which crown the Western Cordilleras, seem to 

 be volcanoes extinguished for a long series of 

 ages ; but the mountain of which we give a 

 drawing, and which is 2° 2' distant from the 

 nearest coasts, those of Esmeralda and the bay 

 of San-Mateo, spouts out at different periods ca- 

 taracts of fire r and spreads destruction over the 

 surrounding plains. 



The form of Cotopaxi is the most beautiful 

 and regular of the colossal summits of the high 

 Andes. It is a perfect cone, which, covered 

 with an enormous layer of snow, shines with 



