XVII TARAPOTO TO CANELOS 129 
streaks far down its sides. To the right of Tungu- 
ragua, and over the summit of Mount Abitagua, 
appeared lofty blue hills, here and there painted 
with white ; till on the extreme right was dimly 
visible a snowy cone of exactly the same form as 
Sangahy but much more distant and loftier ; this 
was Cotopaxi, perhaps the most formidable volcano 
on the surface of our globe. Far behind Tungu- 
ragua, and peeping over its left shoulder, was 
distinctly visible, though in the far distance, a 
paraboloidal mass of unbroken snow ; this was the 
summit of Chimborazo, so long considered the 
monarch of the Andes, and though latterly certain 
peaks in Bolivia have dethroned it, for ever im- 
mortalised by its connection in men's memory with 
such names as Humboldt and La Condamine. 
Thus to right and left of the view I had a volcano. 
Cotopaxi I never saw clearly but once, but Sangahy 
was often visible when the rest of the Cordillera 
was veiled in clouds, and on clear nights we could 
distinctly see it vomiting forth flame every few 
minutes. The first night I passed at Puca-yacu I 
was startled by an explosion like that of distant 
cannon, and not to be mistaken for thunder. It 
came from Sangahy, and scarcely a day passed 
afterwards without my hearing the same sound 
once or oftener ; my ignorance of its origin at first 
amused the people of Puca-yacu, to whom it was 
a familiar sound. 
[During his twenty days' delay at Puca-yacu, 
besides making notes on the general botanical 
features of the district and collecting all the new 
Mosses and Hepatics he could find. Spruce also 
made, as he states in his Prdcis cTim Voyage, ''a 
VOL. II K 
