Chimborazo is 21,000 feet above the level of the sea, and 9000 above the elevated plains on which they stand; and Cotopaxi, 19,000.

Till the discovery of the Himalayas, they were considered the highest points on the globe.

We distinguish, says Humboldt, three kinds of principal forms belonging to the high tops of the Andes:

the volcanoes which are yet burning; volcanoes, the summits of which have sunk after a long series of eruptions, exhibiting ridges bristled with points, needles leaning in different directions, and broken rocks falling into ruins; and a third form of the high tops of the Andes, and the most majestic of the whole, is that of Chimborazo, the summit of which is circular.

The aspect of mountains of granite has little analogy with that of Chimborazo.

Granite summits are flattened hemispheres, and the trappean porphyry forms slender cupolas: but Chimborazo appears like a cloud at the distance of 200 miles.

It detaches itself from the neighbouring summits, and towers over the whole chain of the Andes, like that majestic dome produced by the genius of Michael Angelo, over the antique monuments which surround the Roman Capitol.

The bulk of Chimborazo is so enormous, that the part which the eye embraces at once, near the limit of the eternal snows, is 8000 yards in breadth.

The extreme rarity of the strata of air, across which we see the tops of the Andes, contributes, too, greatly to the splendour of the snow, and the magical effect of its reflection.

Under the Tropics, at a height of 6000 yards, the azure vault of the sky appears of an indigo tint.

The outlines of the mountain detach themselves from the sky in this pure and transparent atmosphere; while the interior strata of the air, reposing on a plain destitute of vegetation, which reflects the radiant heat, are vaporous, and appear to veil the middle of the mountain.

Cotopaxi is the loftiest of the volcanoes of the Andes, which at recent epochs have undergone eruptions; and, notwithstanding it lies near the Equator, its summits are covered with perpetual snows.

The absolute height of Cotopaxi is 18,876 feet, or three miles and a half; consequently it is 2,622 feet, or half a mile, higher than Vesuvius would be, were that mountain placed on the top of the Peak of Teneriffe!

Cotopaxi is the most mischievous of the volcanoes in the kingdom of Quito, and its explosions are the most frequent and disastrous.

The masses of scoriæ 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 3000 feet, or 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 form of Cotopaxi is the most beautiful and regular of the colossal summits of the high Andes. It is a perfect cone, which, covered with a perpetual layer of snow, shines with dazzling splendour at the setting of the sun, and detaches itself in the most picturesque manner from the azure vault above.

This covering of snow conceals from the eye of the observer even the smallest inequalities of the soil; no point of rock, no stony mass, penetrating this coat of ice, or breaking the regularity of the figure of the cone.