239 
tain^ and laid waste the neighbouring country* 
This dreadful catastrophe was accompanied by 
an earthquake, which, in the adjacent towns ot 
Hambato, and Llactacunga, swallowed up thou- 
sands of inhabitants. 
A third form of the high tops of the Andes, 
and the most majestic of the whole, is that of 
Chimborazo, the summit of which is circular ; it 
reminds us of those paps without craters, which 
the elastic force of the vapours swells up in 
regions where the hollow crust of the Globe is 
mined by subterraneous fires. The aspect of 
mountains of granite has little analogy with that 
of Chimborazo. The granitic summits are flat- 
tened hemispheres ; the trappean porphyry 
forms slender cupolas. Thus on the shore of the 
South Sea, after the long rains of winter, when 
the transparency of the air has suddenly in- 
creased, we see Chimborazo appear like a cloud 
at the horizon ; it detaches itself from the 
neighbouring summits, and towers over the 
whole chain of the Andes, like that majestic 
dome, produced by the genius of Michael An- 
gelo, over the antique monuments, which sur- 
round the Capitol. 
