Chap. VI. ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN. 83 
tain prairie, so as to give to the whole scene the app arance 
of a park of the grandest dimensions and the boldest design. 
A little valley, not very distant from the summit, but still 
surrounded by higher portions of the mountain, was a par- 
ticularly charming spot. The bottom, watered by a spring, 
was occupied by a group of shrubs with pink and yellow 
blossoms, while rich festoons of large bell-shaped flowers of 
a lilac colour hung down from a cluster of trees in the 
midst of it. Here and there in the savana stood a few 
coyol palms, from which a kind of wine, called chicha 
coyol, is made in the country. The whole scenery, the 
pure mountain air, and the freshness of the morning, toge- 
ther with the aspect of a spotless sky of saturated blue, 
produced a feeling of enjoyment which made me forget the 
weakness produced by the sickness of the night. 
At the last trees we left -our horses, the remaining por- 
tion of the mountain being too steep and rough for them. 
In this upper region its sides are covered with fragments 
and detached masses of scoriae, which cannot be considered 
as portions of a stream of lava, but must have been thrown 
up from the crater into the air in portions of a semi-fluid 
melted matter, which, when falling down in the condition 
of a stiff paste, formed those flat cakes now seen lying 
loosely on the ground ; or, in the case of larger masses 
that took more time in cooling, rolled or glided down for a 
short distance on the steep mountain side, producing bulky 
lumps of a cylindrical shape or irregular forms and of a 
spongy texture, with large cavities or oven-shaped vaults 
in them. These detached masses of scoriae are half over- 
grown by grass several feet high, concealing their points 
and edges and the interstices between them, so that it is 
impossible to avoid hurting the feet, and advancing on- 
wards, if not with great caution, is. even dangerous. 
g 2 
