cotopaxi.

This mountain is one of the loftliest 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.

The absolute height of Cotopaxi is 18,776 feet, or three miles and a half, consequently it is 2,622 feet, or a half a mile higher than Vesuvius would be, were that mountain placed on the peak of Teneriffe.

Cotopaxi is the most mischevious of the volcanoes in the kingdom of Quito; and its explosions the most frequent and disasterous.

The masses of scoria, and the pieces of rock thrown out of this volcano, cover a surface of several square leagues, and would form, were they heaped together, a prodigious mountain.

In 1738, the flames of Cotopaxi rose to 3000 feet, or upwards of a half mile, above the brink of the crater.

In 1744, the roaring of this volcano was heard at the distance of 600 miles.

On the 4th April 1760, 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.

For 20 years before, no smoke or vapour, that could be perceived, had issued from the crater; but in a single night, the subterraneous fires became so active, that at sunrise the external walls of the cone, heated to a very considerable degrée of temperature, appeared naked and of the dark colour which is peculiar to vitrified scoria.

At the port of Guayaquil, (observes Humboldt) fifty two leagues distant from the crater, we heard, day & night, the noise of the volcano like the discharge of a battery; and we distinguished those tremendous sounds even on the Pacific Ocean.