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Alexander von Humboldt: „An account of two attempts to ascend Chimborazo“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1837-Ueber_zwei_Versuche-04-neu> [abgerufen am 28.03.2024].

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Titel An account of two attempts to ascend Chimborazo
Jahr 1837
Ort London
Nachweis
in: The Athenæum. Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts 524 (11. November 1837), S. 832–834
Sprache Englisch
Typografischer Befund Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Fußnoten mit Asterisken und Kreuzen; Schmuck: Kapitälchen.
Identifikation
Textnummer Druckausgabe: V.66
Dateiname: 1837-Ueber_zwei_Versuche-04-neu
Statistiken
Seitenanzahl: 3
Spaltenanzahl: 4
Zeichenanzahl: 27253

Weitere Fassungen
Ueber zwei Versuche den Chimborazo zu besteigen (Stuttgart; Tübingen, 1837, Deutsch)
Über zwei Versuche den Chimborazo zu besteigen (Berlin, 1836, Deutsch)
On Two Attempts to ascend Chimborazo (Edinburgh, 1837, Englisch)
An account of two attempts to ascend Chimborazo (London, 1837, Englisch)
Mountain Tracks (Birmingham, 1837, Englisch)
[Über zwei Versuche den Chimborazo zu besteigen] (Leipzig, 1837, Deutsch)
An account of two attempts to ascend Chimborazo (New York City, New York, 1838, Englisch)
An account of two attempts to ascend Chimborazo (New York City, New York, 1838, Englisch)
Two attempts to ascend Chimborazo (London, 1838, Englisch)
Két fölmeneteli próba a’ Chimborazóra (Budapest, 1838, Ungarisch)
Ueber zwei Versuche, den Chimborazo zu besteigen (Stuttgart; Tübingen, 1838, Deutsch)
Notice de deux tentatives d’ascension du Chimborazo (Paris, 1838, Französisch)
Notice sur deux tentatives d’Ascension du Chimborazo (Paris, 1838, Französisch)
Noticia acerca de dos tentativas de subida al monte Chimborazo (Madrid, 1839, Spanisch)
Восхожденiе Александра Гумбольдта на Чимборасо [Voschoždenie Aleksandra Gumbolʹdta na Čimboraso] (Sankt Petersburg, 1840, Russisch)
Zwei Versuche, den Chimborazo zu besteigen (Brünn, 1841, Deutsch)
Ueber einen Versuch, den Gipfel des Chimborazo zu ersteigen (Wien, 1854, Deutsch)
Versuch den Gipfel des Chimborazo zu ersteingen (Hildburghausen; New York City, New York, 1855, Deutsch)
|832|

AN ACCOUNT OF TWO ATTEMPTS TO ASCENDCHIMBORAZO. By Alexander von Humboldt.

[The following interesting narrative is abridged from anexcerpt from the unpublished Journal of this distinguishedtraveller, communicated to the Edinburgh PhilosophicalJournal.] The highest mountain-summits of both continents,—in the old continent, Dhawalagiri (White Moun-tain) and the Jawahir; in the new, the Sorata andthe Illimani,—remain unreached by man. Thehighest point of the earth’s surface attained, lies inSouth America on the south-east side of Chimborazo.There travellers have reached the height of nearly18,500 Paris feet*—viz. in June 1802, 3016 toises, in December 1831, 3080 toises, above the level ofthe sea. Barometrical measurements have thus beenmade, in the chain of the Andes 3720 (Paris) feetabove the level of the summit of Mont Blanc. Theheight of Mont Blanc is in relation to that of theCordilleras so inconsiderable, that in the latter, thereare much-frequented passes that are higher; indeed,the upper part of the great city of Potosi has anelevation only 323 toises inferior to that of thesummit of Mont Blanc. I have thought it needfulto premise these numerical statements, in order topresent to the imagination definite points of com-parison for the hypsometric, as it were plastic, con-templation of the surface of the earth. On the 22nd of June 1799, I was in the crater ofthe Peak of Teneriffe. Three years afterwards,almost on the same day (the 23rd June 1802), Ireached a point 6700 feet higher, near the summitof Chimborazo. After a long delay in the table-landof Quito, one of the most wonderful and picturesqueregions of the earth, we undertook the journey to-wards the forests of the Peruvian bark trees of Loxa,the upper course of the river Amazons, westward ofthe celebrated strait (Pongo de Manseriche), andthrough the sandy desert along the Peruvian coastof the South Sea towards Lima, where we were toobserve the transit of Mercury on the 9th November1802. On a plain covered with pumice-stone,—where (after the fearful earthquake of 4th February1797) the building of the new city Riobamba wasbegun,—we enjoyed for several days a splendid viewof the bell or dome-shaped summit of Chimborazo.We had the clearest weather, favouring trigonometri-cal observation. By means of a large telescope, wehad thoroughly examined the snow-mantle of themountain, still 1570 toises distant, and discoveredseveral ridges, which, projecting like sterile blackstreaks, converged towards the summit, and gavesome hope that, upon them, a firm footing might beobtained in the region of eternal snow. RiobambaNuevo lies within sight of the enormous and nowindented mountain Capac-urcu, called by the Spani-ards El Altar, which (says a tradition of the natives)was once higher than Chimborazo, and after havingbeen many years in a state of eruption, suddenly fellin.—Riobamba Nuevo must not be confounded withthe old Riobamba of the great map of La Condamineand Don Pedro Maldonado. The latter city wasentirely destroyed by the great catastrophe of the4th February 1797, which in a few minutes destroyed45,000 human beings.—We were in the plain ofTapia, from which, on the 22nd June, we began ourexpedition towards Chimborazo, being already 8898Paris feet (1483 toises) above the level of the SouthSea.—We gently ascended as far as the foot of themountain, where, in the Indian village Calpi, wewere to pass the night. This plain is sparinglycovered with Cactus stems and Schinus molle, whichresembles a weeping willow. Herds of variegatedllamas, in thousands, seek here a scanty subsistence.At so great a height, the nightly terrestrial radiationof heat, when the sky is cloudless, proves injuriousto agriculture, through cold and frost. Very near to Calpi, northwestward of Lican, thereis in the barren table-land a little isolated hill, the black mountain, Yana-Urcu, the name of whichhas not been given by the French academicians,but which, in a geognostical point of view, de-serves much attention. The hill lies S.S.E. of|Spaltenumbruch|Chimborazo, at a distance of less than three miles(15 to 1°), and separated from the same by the highplain of Lusia only. If in it we do not recognize alateral eruption of Chimborazo, the origin of the conemust certainly be ascribed to the subterranean forceswhich, under that mountain, have for thousands ofyears vainly sought an opening. It is of later originthan the elevation of the great dome-shaped moun-tain. The Yana-Urcu forms, with the northern hillNaguangachi, a connected eminence in the form ofa horse-shoe; the bow, more than a semicircle, isopen towards the east. There probably lies in thecentre of the horse-shoe the point out of which theblack slags have been thrown, that now lie spreadfar around. We found there a funnel-shaped depres-sion of about 120 feet in depth, in the interior ofwhich there is a small hill, whose height does notequal that of the surrounding margin. Yana-Urcuprobably signifies the southern culminating point ofthe old crater-margin, which, at the most, is elevated400 feet above the level of Calpi. Naguangachisignifies the northern lower end.—According to thetradition of the natives, and according to old MSS.which the Cacike or Apu of Lican (the Conchocandi)possessed, the volcanic eruption of the Yana-Urcuoccurred immediately after the death of the IncaTupa-Yupanqui:—thus probably in the middle ofthe fifteenth century. Tradition says that a fire-ball,or indeed a star, fell from heaven and set on fire themountain. Such fables, connecting the fall of aëro-lites with eruptions, are also spread among the tribesof Mexico.—On the eastern side of the Yana-Urcu,or rather at the foot of the hill towards Lican, thenatives conducted us to a projecting rock, an openingin which resembled the mouth of a forsaken gallery.Here, as well as at the distance of ten feet, there isheard a violent subterranean noise, which is accom-panied by a current of air, or subterranean wind.The current of air is much too weak to admit of thenoise being attributed to it. The noise certainlyarises from a subterranean brook, which is pre-cipitated downwards into a deep hollow, and throughits fall occasions a motion in the air. A monk, thepriest at Calpi, had, with the same idea, some time be-fore, continued on the gallery at an open fissure to pro-cure water for his village. The hardness of the blackaugite rock probably interrupted the work. Chim-borazo, notwithstanding its enormous mass of snow,sends down into the table-land such insignificantbrooks of water, that it may be presumed the greaterpart of its water flows through clefts to the interior.In the village of Calpi itself also, there was formerlyheard a great noise in a house that had no cellar.Before the celebrated earthquake of the 4th February1797, there sprang forth a brook in the south-west ofthe village at a deeper point. Many Indians con-sidered this brook as a part of the water that flowsunder the Yana-Urcu. But since the great earth-quake, this brook has again disappeared. After we had passed the night at Calpi, which,according to my barometrical measurement, lies9720 feet (1620 toises) above the sea, we began, onthe morning of the 23rd, our proper expedition upChimborazo. We attempted to ascend the moun-tain on the S.S.E. side, and the Indians who wereto attend us as guides, but of whom but a few hadever reached the limit of perpetual snow, gave thiscourse the preference. We found Chimborazo sur-rounded with great plains, which rise, step-like, oneabove the other. Proceeding first through the Llanosde Lusia, then after rather a gradual ascent of scarcely5000 feet in length, we reached the table-land (Llano)of Sisgun. The first step (stufe) is at a height of10,200 feet, the second 11,700. These grass-grownplains thus equal in elevation, respectively, the high-est summit of the Pyrenees (Peak Nethou) and thesummit of the Peak of Teneriffe. The perfecthorizontality of these table-lands allows us to inferthe long continuance of stagnant water. The tra-veller imagines he sees before him the bottom of alake. On the acclivity of the Swiss Alps, there issometimes observed this phenomenon of small step-like plains, lying one above the other, which, likethe emptied basins of alpine lakes, are united bynarrow open passes. The widely extended grasslands are on Chimborazo, as every where around thehigh summits of the Andes, so monotonous that thefamily of the grasses are seldom interrupted bydicotyledonous plants. There prevails almost the|Spaltenumbruch|heathy scenery which I have seen in the barren partof northern Asia. The Flora of Chimborazo, in gene-ral, appeared to us less rich than that of the othersnow mountains which surround the city of Quito.But a few Calceolariæ, Compositæ, and Gentianæ,among which the beautiful Gentiana cernua shiningforth with purple flowers,—rear themselves on thehigh plain of Sisgun, between the associated grasses.These belong, for the most part, to the genera ofNorthern Europe. The temperature of the airgenerally prevailing in these regions of alpine grasses,elevated respectively 1600 and 2000 toises, fluctuatesby day between 4° and 16° C. (39°.2 and 60°.8 F.)by night between 0° and 10° (32° and 50° F.) My plan was to perform a trigonometrical opera-tion in the beautiful perfectly level grass land ofSisgun. I had made arrangements for measuring abase line here. The angles of altitude would haveproved very considerable in such proximity to thesummit of Chimborazo. There remained yet a per-pendicular height of less than 8400 feet (the heightof the Canigou in the Pyrenees) to determine. Yetwith the enormous masses of single mountains in thechain of the Andes, every determination of the heightabove the sea is compounded of a barometrical andtrigonometrical observation. I had taken with methe sextant and other instruments of measurementin vain. The summit of Chimborazo remaineddensely veiled in mist. From the high plain of Sis-gun the ascent is tolerably steep as far as the littlealpine lake of Yana-Coche. Thus far I had remainedon the mule, having from time to time alighted withmy travelling companion M. Bonpland merely tocollect plants. Yana-Coche does not deserve thename of a lake. It is a circular basin of scarcely130 feet in diameter. The sky became more andmore obscured; but between and over the mist-stratathere still lay scattered single groups of clouds. Thesummit of Chimborazo was visible for a few momentsonly at a time. Much snow having fallen duringthe preceding night, I left the mule where we foundthe lower border of this newly-fallen snow, a borderwhich must not be confounded with the limit of per-petual snow. The barometer showed that we hadonly now attained the height of 13,500 feet. Onother mountains, likewise near to the equator, I haveseen snow fall at the height of 11,200 feet, but notlower. My companion rode as far as the line ofperpetual snow, i. e. to the height of Mont Blanc;which mountain, as is known, would not in this lati-tude (1° 27′ south) always be covered with snow.The horses and mules remained there to await ourreturn. A hundred and fifty toises above the little basin ofYana-Coche, we saw at length naked rock. Hithertothe grass-land had withdrawn the ground from anygeognostical examination. Great walls of rock, ex-tending from the N.E. towards the S.W., in partcleft into misshapen columns, reared themselves outof the eternal snow,—a brownish-black augite rockshining like pitch-stone porphyry. The columnswere very thin, perhaps from fifty to sixty feet inheight, almost like the trachyte columns of Tabla-Umca on the volcano Pichincha. One group stoodalone, and reminded one of masts and stems of trees.The steep walls led us through the snow region to anarrow ridge of rock extending towards the summit,by which alone it was possible for us to advance anyfarther; for the snow was then so soft that onescarcely dared to tread upon its surface. The ridgeconsisted of very weathered crumbling rock. It wasoften vesicular like a basaltic-amygdaloid. The path became more and more narrow andsteep. The natives forsook us all but one at theheight of 15,600 feet. All entreaties and threatswere unavailing. The Indians maintained that theysuffered more than we did from breathlessness. Weremained alone, Bonpland,—our amiable friend theyounger son of the Marquis of Selvalegre, CarlosMontufar, who in the subsequent struggle for free-dom, was shot (at the command of General Morillo),—a Mestize from the neighbouring village of SanJuan,—and myself. We attained, with great exer-tion and endurance, a greater height than we haddared hope to reach, as we were almost entirelywrapped in mist. The ridge (very significantly called,in Spanish, Cuchilla, as it were the knife-back) wasin many places only eight to ten inches broad. Onthe left the precipice was concealed by snow, the
* One French foot is = 1.07892, or about 1 \( \frac{1}{13} \) Eng-lish.—Tr. A toise is = 1.94904 metres, or 6.39459 English feet.—Tr.
|833| surface of the latter seemed glazed with frost. Thethin icy mirror-like surface had an inclination ofabout 30°. On the right our view sank shuddering800 or 1000 feet into an abyss out of which pro-jected, perpendicularly, snowless masses of rock. Weheld the body continually inclined towards this side,for the precipice upon the left seemed still morethreatening, because there no chance presented itselfof grasping the toothed rock, and because, further,the thin ice-crust offered no security against sinkingin the loose snow. Only extremely light porous bitsof dolerite could we roll down this crust of ice; andthe inclined plane of snow was so extended that welost sight of the stones thus rolled down before theycame to rest. The absence of snow, as well uponthe ridge along which we ascended, as upon the rockson our right hand towards the east, cannot be as-cribed so much to the steepness of the masses, and tothe gales of wind, as to open clefts, which breatheout warm air from deeper situated beds. We soonfound our further ascent more difficult, from the in-crease of the crumbling nature of the rock. At singleand very steep échélons it was necessary to apply atthe same time the hands and feet, as is so usual inall alpine journeys. As the rock was very keenlyangular, we were painfully hurt, especially in thehands. Leopold Von Buch and I suffered very muchin this manner near the crater of the Peak of Tene-riffe, which abounds in obsidian.—The little adhesionof the rocks upon the ridge now rendered greatercaution necessary, as many masses which we sup-posed firm lay loose and covered with sand. Weproceeded one after the other, and so much the moreslowly, as it was needful to try the places whichseemed uncertain. Happily the attempt to reachthe summit of Chimborazo was the last of our moun-tain journeys in South America; hence previousexperience guided us, and gave us more confidencein our powers. It is a peculiar character of all ex-cursions in the Andes, that above the snow line whitepeople find themselves, in the most perilous situations,always without guides, indeed without any knowledgeof localities.
We could see the summit no longer, even for amoment only at a time, and were hence doublycurious to know, how much higher it remained forus to ascend. We examined the barometer at apoint where the breadth of the ridge permitted oftwo persons standing conveniently together. Wewere now at an elevation of 17,300 feet; thus scarcelytwo hundred feet higher than we had been two monthsbefore, when climbing a similar ridge on the Antisana.It is with the determining of heights in climbingmountains, as with the determining of temperaturein the heat of summer. One finds with vexationthe thermometer not so high, the barometer not solow, as one expected. As the air, notwithstandingthe height, was quite saturated with moisture, wenow found the loose rock and the sand that filled itsinterstices extremely wet. The air was still 2° 8′(37° 04′ Fahr.) Shortly before, we had in a dryplace been able to bury the thermometer three inchesdeep in the sand. It indicated +5° 8′ (+42° 44′Fahr.) The result of this observation, which wasmade at the height of about 2860 toises, is veryremarkable, for 400 toises lower down, at the limitof perpetual snow, the mean heat of the atmosphereis according to many observations, carefully collectedby Boussingault and myself, only +1° 6′ (34° 88′Fahr.) The temperature of earth (sand) at +5° 8′(42° 44′ Fahr.) must therefore be ascribed to thesubterranean heat of the dolerite mountain; I donot say to the whole mass, but to the current of airascending from the interior. After an hour of cautious climbing, the ridge ofrock became less steep; but alas! the mist remainedas thick as ever. We now began gradually to sufferfrom great nausea. The tendency to vomiting wascombined with some giddiness; and much more trou-blesome than the difficulty of breathing. A colouredman (a Mestize of San Juan), not from selfish motives,but merely out of good-nature, had been unwilling toforsake us. He was a poor vigorous peasant, and suf-fered more than we did. We had hæmorrhage fromthe gums and lips. The conjunctiva of the eyeslikewise, was, in all, gorged with blood. These symp-toms of extravasation in the eyes, and of oozing fromthe lips and gums, did not in the least disquiet us,as we had repeatedly experienced them before. In|Spaltenumbruch|Europe, M. Zumstein began to experience hæmor-rhage at a much lower elevation on Monte Rosa. TheSpanish warriors during the conquest of the equi-noctial region of America (during the Conquista),did not ascend above the snow line, thus but littleabove the elevation of Mont Blanc, and yet Acosta,in his ‘Historia Natural de las Indias,’—a kind ofphysical geography, which may be called a master-piece of the sixteenth century,—speaks circumstan-tially of “nausea and spasm of the stomach,” aspainful symptoms of the mountain-sickness, which inthese respects is analogous to sea-sickness. On thevolcano of Pichincha I once felt, without experienc-ing hæmorrhage, so violent an affection of the stomach,accompanied by giddiness, that I was found senselesson the ground, just as I left my companions on awall of rock above the defile of Verde-Cucha, inorder to perform some electrical experiments on aperfectly open space. The height was inconsiderable,below 13,800 feet. But on the Antisana, at theconsiderable elevation of 17,220 feet, our youngtravelling companion, Don Carlos Montufar, bledfreely from the lips. All of these phenomena varyaccording to age, constitution, the tenderness of theskin, the preceding exertions of the muscular powers;yet for single individuals they are a kind of measureof the atmospheric tenuity, and of the absolute eleva-tion reached. According to my observations in theCordilleras, these symptoms manifest themselves inwhite people, with a mercurial column between 14inches,—and 15 inches 10 lines. The layers of mist that prevented our seeing dis-tant objects, appeared suddenly, notwithstanding thetotal stillness of the air, perhaps through electricalprocesses, to be broken up. We recognized oncemore, and indeed immediately before us, the dome-shaped summit of Chimborazo. It was an earnest,momentous gaze. The hope to reach this summitanimated our powers anew. The ridge of rock, onlyhere and there covered with thin flakes of snow, be-came somewhat broader. We hastened onwards,with certain steps, when all at once a ravine of some400 feet in depth, and 50 broad, set an insurmount-able barrier to our undertaking. We saw distinctlybeyond the abyss, our ridge of rock continued for-ward in the same direction; yet I doubt its leadingto the summit itself. The chasm was not to be goneround. On the Antisana, M. Bonpland indeed hadfound it possible, after a very cold night, to proceedfor a considerable length through the snow. Wedurst not venture the attempt, because of the loose-ness of the mass, and the form of the precipice ren-dered climbing down impossible. It was one o’clockin the afternoon. We set up with much care thebarometer. It indicated 13 inches 11\( \frac{2}{10} \) lines. Thetemperature of the air was now —1° 6′ (+29° 12′Fahr.), but after several years’ stay in the hottestregions of the Tropics, this small degree of coldbenumbed us. Besides, our boots were thoroughlysoaked with snow-water, for the sand that coveredhere and there the ridge was mixed with old snow.According to La Place’s barometrical formula, wehad reached a height of 3016 toises, or more pre-cisely 18,097 Paris feet. If La Condamine’s estimateof the height of Chimborazo, as noted on the stone-table of the Jesuit’s College in Quito, be correct,there failed us yet of the summit of the mountain1224 feet, or thrice the height of St. Peter’s churchat Rome. We remained but a short time in this mournfulsolitude, being soon again entirely veiled in mist.The humid air was not thereby set in motion. Nofixed direction was to be observed in single groups ofthe denser particles of vapour; I therefore cannotsay whether at this elevation the west wind blows,opposing the Tropical monsoon. We saw no longerthe summit of Chimborazo, none of the neighbouringsnow-mountains, still less the table lands of Quito.We were as though isolated in a ball of air. Somestone lichens only had followed us above the line ofperpetual snow. The last cryptogamic plants whichI collected were Leeidea atrovirens (Lichen geogra-phicus, Web.), and a Gyrophora of Acharius, a newspecies (Gyrophora rugosa), at about the height of2820 toises. The last moss, Grimmia longirostris,grew 400 toises lower down. A butterfly (sphinx)was caught by M. Bonpland at the height of 15,000feet; we saw a fly 1600 feet higher. I must remark,|Spaltenumbruch|that we met with no condor on Chimborazo, thatpowerful vulture, which is so frequent on Antisanaand Pichincha, and which shows great confidencefrom its ignorance of man. The condor loves pureair, in order the easier from on high to recognize itsprey or its food, for it gives dead animals the pre-ference. As the weather became more and more cloudy, wehastened down upon the same ledge of rock, that hadfavoured our ascent. Caution, however, on accountof the uncertainty of the steps, was more necessarythan in climbing up. We tarried only just to col-lect fragments of rock. We foresaw that in Europe“a little bit of Chimborazo” would be asked for. Atthat time, no mountain rock in any part of SouthAmerica had been named; the rocks of all the highsummits of the Andes were called granite. As wewere at the height of about 17,400 feet, it began tohail violently. The hailstones were opaque, andmilk-white, with concentric layers; some appearedconsiderably flattened by rotation; twenty minutesbefore we reached the lower limit of perpetual snow,the hail was replaced by snow. The flakes were sodense, that the snow soon covered the ridge of rockmany inches deep; we should have been broughtinto great danger, had the snow surprised us at theheight of 18,000 feet. At a few minutes after twoo’clock, we reached the point where our mules werestanding. The natives that remained behind, hadbeen very apprehensive for our safety. That part of our expedition which lay above thesnow-line, had lasted only 3½ hours, during which,notwithstanding the tenuity of the air, we had notfound it needful to take rest by sitting down. Onaccount of the snow newly fallen, we found in ourdescent from Chimborazo, the lower limit of per-petual snow, in accidental and temporary conjunctionwith the deeper sporadial spots of snow on the nakedlichen-covered rocks, and on the grass plain (Pajo-nal); yet it was always easy to recognize the properlimit of perpetual snow (then at the height of 2470toises) by the thickness of the bed and by its peculiarstate. We took a somewhat more northern way backto the village of Calpi than the Llanos de Sisgun,through the Paramo de Pungupala, a district rich inplants. By five o’clock in the evening we were againwith the friendly clergyman of Calpi. As usual, themisty day of the expedition was succeeded by theclearest weather. On the 25th of June, at Rio-bamba Nuevo, Chimborazo presented itself in all itssplendour,—I may say, in the calm greatness andsupremacy which is the natural character of thetropical landscape. A second attempt upon a ridgeinterrupted by a chasm, would certainly have turnedout as fruitless as the first, and I was already engagedwith the trigonometrical measurement of the volcanoof Tungurahua. Boussingault, on the 16th of December 1831, withhis English friend Colonel Hall,—who was soonafterwards assassinated in Quito,—made a new at-tempt to reach the summit of Chimborazo, first fromMocha and Chillapullu, then from Arenal, thus by adifferent way from that trodden by Bonpland, DonCarlos Montufar, and myself. He was obliged togive up the ascent, when his barometer indicated 13inches 8½ lines, with an atmospheric temperature of+7°.8 (+46°.04 F.). He thus saw the uncorrectedcolumn of mercury almost three lines lower, andreached a point 64 toises higher than I did, viz.3080 toises. Let us have the words of this well-known traveller of the Andes, who was the first tocarry a chemical apparatus to, and into, the cratersof volcanoes. “The way,” says Boussingault, “whichwe opened for ourselves through the snow, in thelatter part of our expedition, permitted of our ad-vancing but very slowly. On the right we wereenabled to grasp hold of a rock, on the left, theabyss was fearful. We were already sensible of theeffect of the attenuated air, and were obliged, everytwo or three steps to sit down. As soon, however,as we were seated, we again stood up, for our suffer-ings lasted only while we moved. The snow wewere obliged to tread was soft, and lay three or fourinches deep, on a very smooth and hard covering ofice. We were obliged to hew our steps. A Negrowent before, to perform this work, by which hispowers were soon exhausted. As I was endeavour-ing to pass him, for the purpose of relieving him, I |834| slipped, and happily was held back by Colonel Halland my Negro. We were (adds M. Boussingault)for a moment all three in the greatest danger. Fur-ther on, the snow became more favourable, and atthree quarters past three o’clock we stood upon thelong-looked-for ridge of rock, which was only a fewfeet broad, and surrounded by immeasurable depths.Here we became convinced that to advance fartherwas impossible. We found ourselves at the foot ofa prism of rock, whose upper surface covered with acap of snow, forms the proper summit of Chimborazo.To have a true figure of the topography of the wholemountain, one must imagine an enormous snow-covered mass of rock, which from all sides appearsas if supported by buttresses. The latter are theridges, which, adherent, project through the eternalsnow.”