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dazzling' splendor at the setting of the sun^ and 
detaches itself in the most picturesque manner 
from the azure vault of Heaven. This covering 
of snow conceals from the eye of the observer 
even the smallest inequalities of the soil ; no 
point of rockj no stony mass, penetrates this 
coating of ice, or breaks the regularity of the 
figure of the cone. The summit of Cotopaxi 
resembles the Sugar-loaf (Pan de azucar) which 
terminates the Peak of Teyde ; but the height of 
its cone is six times the height of that of the 
great volcano of the Island of TenerifFe. 
It is only near the brink of the crater we see 
ledges of rock, that are never covered with snow, 
and that look at a distance like stripes of the 
darkest hue ; the great steepness of this part of 
the cone, and the crevices from which issue 
currents of heated air, are probably the causes 
of this phenomenon. The crater, like that 
of the Peak of TenerifFe, is surrounded by a 
small circular wall, which, examined with a 
good telescope, looks like a parapet. This is 
more distinctly seen on the southern declivity, 
when the beholder is placed either on the Lion 
mountain (Puma-Urcu) ^ or on the banks of the 
small lake of Yuracoche. I have added beneath 
the plate, in order to show this peculiar structure 
of the volcano, a view of the southern brink of 
the crater, such as I have sketched it near the 
limit of the perpetual snows (at the absolute 
