237 



perature, which reigns under this zone, is the 

 cause why the limit of perpetual ice is not sub- 

 ject to those irregularities, which we observe in 

 the Alps and the Pyrenees. On the northern 

 declivity of Chimborazo, between that mountain 

 and Carguairazo, the road leads from Quito to 

 Guayaquil, and toward the coasts of the Pacific 

 Ocean. The paps covered with snow, which 

 rise on this side, remind us, by their form, of that 

 of the dome of Goute, seen from the valley of 

 Chamonix. On a narrow ridge, which rises 

 amidst the snows on the southern declivity, M. 

 M. Bonpland, Montufar, and myself, attempted 

 to reach, not without danger, the summit of 

 Chimborazo. We carried instruments to a con- 

 siderable height, though we were surrounded by 

 a thick fog, and very much incommoded by the 

 great tenuity of the air. The point where we 

 stopped to observe the inclination of the mag- 

 netic needle was more elevated than any yet 

 attained by man on the ridge of mountains ; it 

 was more than eleven hundred metres higher 

 than the top of Mount Blanc, which the most 

 enlightened and most intrepid .of travellers, Mr. 

 de Saussure, had the satisfaction of reaching, 

 after struggling against difficulties still greater 

 than those we had to conquer near the summit of 

 Chimborazo. These laborious excursions, the 

 narratives of whjch generally excite the atten- 

 tion of the publie, offer but a very small number 



