NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. XIX 
glossums, etc. — growing in the Andes at 10,000 
feet, where they must frequently endure frost ; yet 
these are precisely the kinds that have been found 
(hitherto) most difficult to cultivate in England. 
The greatest height to which I have yet climbed 
was 13,000 feet, on the volcano Pichincha, near 
Quito. It is practicable to ride up to the very 
edge of the crater (15,000 feet), and it was my 
intention to do so, but my guide mistook the way, 
and we got entangled in thickets at about 11,000 
feet, where we had to dismount and cut a way for the 
horses to pass, and finally to leave them tied to bushes 
and continue the ascent on foot. I had only lately 
emerged from the sick-room, and got very much 
fatigued with two hours of steep, rugged climbing. 
At the highest point we reached, we lay down to rest 
on the grass, and I had lain a few minutes with my 
eyes closed when I suddenly felt as it were a flag 
waved over my face, and looking up saw an immense 
condor sailing over us at only a few feet distance. 
My companion sprang to his feet with a shriek, 
and prepared to defend himself with his staff. 
He thinks we are dead," said he, ''and if we had 
lain a moment longer we should have felt his beak 
and claws in our faces ! " The condor was immedi- 
ately joined by two others of his species, but being 
baulked of their prey, they rose in slowly widening 
circles, and at length appeared only specks on the 
bright heaven. This incident was additional con- 
firmation to me that the vulture tribe hunt by sight 
and not by scent. The condor is a magnificent 
bird, but yet looks very much like a turkey-buzzard 
on a large scale, and has not the noble aspect of the 
golden eagle and the royal eagle of the Amazon. 
