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Chimborazo is 21,000 feet above thelevel of the sea, and 9000 above the ele-vated plains on which they stand; andCotopaxi, 19,000. Till the discovery of
|Spaltenumbruch|the Himalayas, they were considered thehighest points on the globe.
We distinguish, says Humboldt, threekinds of principal forms belonging to the
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|Spaltenumbruch|high tops of the Andes: the volcanoeswhich are yet burning; volcanoes, thesummits of which have sunk after a longseries of eruptions, exhibiting ridgesbristled with points, needles leaning indifferent directions, and broken rocks fall-ing into ruins; and a third form of thehigh tops of the Andes, and the mostmajestic of the whole, is that of Chim-borazo, the summit of which is circular.The aspect of mountains of granite haslittle analogy with that of Chimborazo.Granite summits are flattened hemispheres,and the trappean porphyry forms slendercupolas: but Chimborazo appears like acloud at the distance of 200 miles. Itdetaches itself from the neighbouring sum-mits, and towers over the whole chain ofthe Andes, like that majestic dome pro-duced by the genius of Michael Angelo,over the antique monuments which sur-round the Roman Capitol.
The bulk of Chimborazo is so enor-mous, that the part which the eye em-braces at once, near the limit of the eternalsnows, is 8000 yards in breadth. The ex-treme rarity of the strata of air, acrosswhich we see the tops of the Andes, con-tributes, too, greatly to the splendour ofthe snow, and the magical effect of itsreflection. Under the Tropics, at a heightof 6000 yards, the azure vault of the skyappears of an indigo tint. The outlinesof the mountain detach themselves fromthe sky in this pure and transparentatmosphere; while the interior strata ofthe air, reposing on a plain destitute ofvegetation, which reflects the radiantheat, are vaporous, and appear to veil themiddle of the mountain.
Cotopaxi is the loftiest of the volca-noes of the Andes, which at recent epochshave undergone eruptions; and, notwith-standing it lies near the Equator, its sum-mits are covered with perpetual snows.The absolute height of Cotopaxi is 18,876feet, or three miles and a half; conse-quently it is 2,622 feet, or half a mile,higher than Vesuvius would be, were thatmountain placed on the top of the Peakof Teneriffe! Cotopaxi is the most mis-chievous of the volcanoes in the kingdomof Quito, and its explosions are themost frequent and disastrous. The massesof scoriæ and the pieces of rock thrownout of this volcano cover a surface of severalsquare leagues, and would form, were theyheaped together, a prodigious mountain.In 1738, the flames of Cotopaxi rose3000 feet, or upwards of half a mile, abovethe brink of the crater. In 1744, theroarings of this volcano were heard at thedistance of 600 miles. On the 4th of
|Spaltenumbruch|April, 1768, the quantity of ashes ejectedat the mouth of Cotopaxi was so great,that it was dark till three in the afternoon.The form of Cotopaxi is the most beauti-ful and regular of the colossal summits ofthe high Andes. It is a perfect cone,which, covered with a perpetual layer ofsnow, shines with dazzling splendour atthe setting of the sun, and detaches itselfin the most picturesque manner from theazure vault above. This covering of snowconceals from the eye of the observer eventhe smallest inequalities of the soil; nopoint of rock, no stony mass, penetratingthis coat of ice, or breaking the regularityof the figure of the cone.
