Cotopaxi.

This mountain is the loftiest of those Volcanoes of the Andes which at recent epochs have undergone eruptions.

Notwithstanding it lies near the equator, its summits are covered with perpetual snows.

Its height is three miles and a half.

The masses of scoriæ and pieces of rock, thrown out of this Volcano, cover a surface of several square leagues, and would form, if heaped together, a prodigious mountain.

In 1738 the flames of Cotopaxi rose upwards of half a mile above the brink of the crater.

In 1744, the roarings of this volcano were heard at the distance of 600 miles.

On the 4th of April, 1768, the quantity of ashes ejected at the mouth of Cotopaxi was so great, that it was dark till three in the afternoon.

The explosion which took place in 1803, was preceded by the sudden melting of the snows which covered the mountain.

In a single night the subterraneous fires became so active, that at sun-rise the external walls of the cone appeared naked, and of the dark color of vitrified scoriæ.

At the port of Guayquil, observes Humboldt, 52 leagues distant from the crater, we heard day and night, the noise of this Volcano, like continued discharges of a battery; and we distinguished these tremenduous sounds even on the Pacific Ocean.

Clarke.