shooting its contents three thousand feet above its
snow-bound summit, with a voice of thunder heard six hundred miles!

[Footnote 86: Compare the following sections:

COTOPAXI (near Tiupullo).
Soil 1 ft. 0 in.
Fine yellow pumice 5 " 0 "
Compact black ashes, with seams of pumice 10 " 0 "
Fine yellow pumice 1 " 6 "
Compact black ashes 12 " 0 "
Fine yellow pumice 2 " 0 "
Compact black ashes, with seams of pumice.

VESUVIUS (at Pompeii).
Soil 3 ft. 0 in.
Brown incoherent tuff 1 " 6 "
Small scoriae and white lapilli 0 " 3 "
Brown earthy tuff 4 " 9 "
Whitish lapilli 0 " 1 "
Gray solid tuff 0 " 3 "
Pumice and white lapilli 0 " 3 "

]

Leaving this terrible "safety-valve" to the imprisoned fires under our
feet, we travel along the wooded flanks and savage valleys of the
Llanganati Mountains, whose lofty blue ridge is here and there pointed
with snow.[87] It is universally believed that the Incas buried an
immense quantity of gold in an artificial lake on the sides of this
mountain during the Spanish invasion, and many an adventurous expedition
has been made for it. The inhabitants will tell you of one Valverde, a
Spaniard, who, from being very poor, had suddenly become very rich,
which was attributed to his having married an Indian girl whose father
showed him where the treasure was hidden, and accompanied him on various
occasions to bring away portions of it; and that Valverde returned to
Spain, and on his death-bed bequeathed the secret of his riches to the
king. But since Padre Longo suddenly disappeared while leading an
expedition, the timid Ecuadorians have been content with their
poverty.[88]

[Footnote 87: Immediately south of Cotopaxi, the Cordillera consists of
paramos sown with lakes and morasses, and is rarely covered with snow.
Llanganati is probably from _llanga_, to touch: they touch the sources
of nearly all the Ecuadorian rivers.]

[Footnote 88: The story is doubtless due to the fact that the eastern
streams, which issue from the foot of this cordillera, are auriferous.]

And now we have reached the perfect cone of Tunguragua, the rival of
Cotopaxi in symmetr