after thunder, which, reverberating from
precipice to precipice, were answered by the crash of rocks let loose by
the storm, till the whole mountain seemed to tremble like a leaf. Such
acoustics, mingled with the flash of lightning and the smell of
brimstone, made us believe that we had fairly got into the realm of
Pluto. It is the spot where Dante's _Inferno_ ought to be read.

Finishing our observations, and warming our dinner over the steaming
crevices, we prepared to ascend. The escape from this horrid hole was
more perilous than the entrance, and on reaching the top we sang, with
grateful hearts, to the tune of "Old Hundred,"

"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow."

We doubt whether that famous tune and glorious doxology were ever sung
so near to heaven.

The second line,

"Praise him all creatures here below,"

had a strange meaning fifteen thousand feet high.

There have been five eruptions of Pichincha since the Conquest. The last
was in 1660; that of 1566 covered Quito three feet deep with ashes and
stones, while boiling water and bitumen descended in torrents. In 1867
the column of smoke did not rise above the crest of the crater, but the
volcano has lately been showing signs of activity, such as it has not
exhibited since the last grand eruption two centuries ago. On the 19th
of March, 1868, detonations were audible at Quito, and three days after
there were more thunderings, with a great column of vapor visible from
Chillo, twelve miles to the east. These phenomena were accompanied by an
unusual fall of rain. Since the great earthquake of August 16th,
Pichincha has continued to send forth dense columns of black smoke, and
so much fine sand that it is not possible to reach the crater. The solid
products of Pichincha since the Conquest have been chiefly pumice,
coarse-grained and granular trachyte, and reddish porphyroid trachyte.
The roads leading to Quito cut through hills of pumice-dust. On the
plain of Inaquito and in the valley of Esmeraldas are vast erratic
blocks of trachyte, some containing twenty-five cubic yards, having
sharp angles, and in some cases a polished, unstriated surface. M. Wisse
does not consider them to have been thrown out of Pichincha, as La
Condamine and others have judged. It is true, as he says, that they
could not have come out of the present cone at a less angle than 45 deg.,
for they would have hit the sides of the high rocky rampart and rolled
back again;