us; we can look down on the upper surface
of the clouds, and, were it night, down too upon the lightnings.

The crater of Pichincha has a sharp, serrated edge, which, happily for
Quito, is broken down on the west side, so that in the next eruption the
volcano will doubtless pour its contents into the wilds of Esmeraldas.
The highest pinnacle is 15,827 feet; so that the mountain just enters
the region of perpetual winter. Water boils at 185 deg.. The summit is
generally bare, though snow is always found in the clefts of the rocks.
It is not compact or crystalline, but resembles a conglomerate of little
hailstones.[76] Out of the mingled snow and pumice-dust rise a few
delicate flowers, particularly the violet _Sida Pichinchensis_, the same
which we had observed on the side of Chimborazo. Think of gay flowers a
thousand feet higher than the top of Mont Blanc!

[Footnote 76: The snow on the top of Mont Blanc is like dry dust; in
Lapland, in open places, it consists of hexagonal crystals, and is
called by the inhabitants "sand-snow." The French and Spanish
mathematicians, Bouguer, La Condamine, and Ulloa, in their story of
ascending Pichincha, give a long and dreadful account of their
sufferings from cold and rarefied air: "whilst eating, every one was
obliged to keep his plate over a chafing-dish of coals, to prevent his
food from freezing." The traveler nowadays finds only a chilling wind.
This rise of temperature, coupled with the fact that La Condamine
(1745), Humboldt (1802), Boussingault (1831), and Wisse (1863) give to
Quito a decreasing altitude, inclines us to believe, with Boussingault,
that the Andes are sinking. Since the activity of the volcano in 1868,
the summit has been so warm that the snow has totally disappeared.
Ice-cream has in consequence risen in price in Quito, as snow must be
brought from Sincholagua, four days' journey.]

The first to reach the brink of the crater were the French Academicians
in 1742. Sixty years after, Humboldt stood on the summit. But it was not
till 1844 that any one dared to enter the crater. This was accomplished
by Garcia Moreno, now President of Ecuador, and Sebastian Wisse, a
French engineer. Humboldt pronounced the bottom of the crater
"inaccessible, from its great depth and precipitous descent." We found
it accessible, but exceedingly perilous. The moment we prepared to
descend our guide ran away. We went on without him, but when halfway
down were stopped by a precipice