0 MOUNTAINS. 
which is peculiar to vitrified scoriae. “ At the port of 
Guayaquil,” observes Humboldt, “ fifty-two leagues dis- 
tant in a straight line from the crater, we heal’d, day and 
night, the noise of this volcano, like continued discharges 
of a battery ; and we distinguished these tremendous sounds 
even on the Pacific Ocean.” 
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 a perpetual layer of snow, 
shines with dazzling splendour at the setting of the sun, 
and detaches itself in the most pictoi’esque manner fi’om 
the azure vault aliovc. This covering of snow conceals 
from the eye of tlie observer even tlie smallest inequal- 
ities of the soil ; no point of rock, no stony mass, pene- 
trating this coat of ice, or breaking tlie regularity of the 
figure of tlie cone. 
PIC H INCH A. 
Though celebrated for its great height, Pichincha is 3,849 
feet, or tlwee-fourths of a mile, lower than the perpen- 
dicular elevation of Cotopaxi. It was formerly a volcano ; 
but the mouth or crater on one of its sides is now covered 
with s.aiid or calcined matter, so that at present neither 
smoke nor ashes issue from it. 
When it was ascended by Don George Juan and Don 
Antonio de UUoa, for the purpose of their, asti’onomical 
obsen’ations, tliey found the cold on the top of tliis moun- 
tain esitremely intense, the wind very violent, and the] fog, 
or, in otlior words, the cloud, so tliick, that objects at the 
distance of six or eight paces were scarcely discernible. 
t)n the air becoming clear, by tlie clouds descending nearer 
the earth, in such manner as to surround tUe mountain 
on all sides to a vast distance, these clouds afforded a 
lively representation of the sea, in which tlie top of the 
mountain seemed to stand, like an island in die centre. 
With aspect niiM, and elevated eje, 
JSeliold liiiii seated on a mount seiene, 
Above the fogs of sense, and pa.ssion’s storm; 
All the black cares and tnmnlts ot this life, 
Like harmless tluindcrs, breaking at his feet, 
Excite his pity, not impair his peace, You.xo 
