11 
aspect of the Cordilleras, at the two epochas of 
the maximum and minimum of the height of the 
snows. 
Travellers who have approached the summits 
of Mont Blanc and Mont Rose are alone 
capable of feeling the character of this calm, 
majestic, and solemn scenery. The bulk of 
Chimborazo is so enormous, that the part which 
the eye embraces at once near the limit of the 
eternal snows is seven thousand metres in breadths 
The extreme rarity of the strata of air, across 
which we seethe tops of the Andes, contributes* 
greatly to the splendour of the snow, and the 
magical effect of its reflection. Under the 
tropics, at a height of five thousand metres, the 
azure vault of the sky appears of an indigo tint'f'. 
The outlines of the mountain detach themselves 
from the sky in this pure and transparent atmos- 
phere, while the inferior strata of the air, re- 
posing on a plain destitute of vegetation, which 
reflects the radiant heat, are vaporous, and ap- 
pear to veil the middle ground of the landscape. 
The elevated plain of Tapia, which extends to 
the East as far as the foot of the Altar and of 
Condorasto, is three thousand metres in height, 
nearly equal to that of Canigou, one of the 
highest summits of the Pyrenees. A few plants 
* Political Essay on New Spain, vol. 1, p. 77, 
+ See my Geography of Plants, p. 17. 
