30 



Advancing toward the North, we find, be- 

 tween the volcano of Cotopaxi and the town of 

 Honda, two other systems of volcanic mountains, 

 those of Los Pastos and of Popayan. The con- 

 nection of these systems was manifested in the 

 Andes in an incontestible manner by a pheno- 

 menon, which I have already had occasion to 

 notice, in speaking of the last destruction of 

 Cum ana. Since the month of November, 1796^ 

 a thick column of smoke had issued from the 

 volcano of Pas to, West of the town of that name^ 

 and near the valley of rio Guaytara. The 

 mouths of the volcano are lateral, and placed 

 on its western declivity, yet during three suc- 

 cessive months the column rose so much higher 

 than the ridge of the mountain, that it was con- 

 stantly visible to the inhabitants of the town of 

 Pasto. They related to us their astonishment, 

 when, on the 4th of February, 1797, they ob- 

 served the smoke disappear in an instant, with- 

 out feeling any shock whatever. At that very 

 moment, sixty-five leagues to the South, between 

 Chimborazo, Tunguragua,and the Altar (Capac- 

 Urcu), the town of Riobamba was overthrown 

 by the most dreadful earthquake, of which tra- 

 dition has transmitted the history. Is it possible 

 to doubt from this coincidence of phenomena, 

 that the vapours, issuing from the small aper- 

 tures or ventanillas of the volcano of Pasto, had 

 an influence on the pressure of those elastic 



