ano were heard at Honda on the Rio Magdalena,
about 500 m. distant; in 1768 the quantity of ashes ejected was so great
that it covered all the lesser vegetation as far as Riobamba; and in
1803 Humboldt reports that at the port of Guayaquil, 160 m. from the
crater, he heard the noise day and night like continued discharges of a
battery. There were considerable outbursts in 1851, 1855, 1856, 1864 and
1877. In 1802 Humboldt made a vain attempt to scale the cone, and
pronounced the enterprise impossible; and the failure of Jean Baptiste
Boussingault in 1831, and the double failure of M. Wagner in 1858,
seemed to confirm his opinion. In 1872, however, Dr Wilhelm Reiss
succeeded on the 27th and 28th of November in reaching the top; in the
May of the following year the same feat was accomplished by Dr A.
Stubel, and he was followed by T. Wolf in 1877, M. von Thielmann in 1878
and Edward Whymper in 1880.

Cotopaxi is frequently described as one of the most beautiful mountain
masses of the world, rivalling the celebrated Fujiyama of Japan in its
symmetry of outline, but overtopping it by more than 7000 ft. It is more
than 15,000 ft. higher than Vesuvius, over 7000 ft. higher than
Teneriffe, and nearly 2000 ft. higher than Popocatepetl. Its slope,
according to Orton, is 30 deg., according to Wagner 29 deg., the
north-western side being slightly steeper than the south-eastern. The
apical angle is 122 deg. 30'. The snowfall is heavier on the eastern
side of the cone which is permanently covered, while the western side is
usually left bare, a phenomenon occasioned by the action of the moist
trade winds from the Atlantic. Its height according to Whymper is 19,613
ft., and its crater is 2300 ft. in diameter from N. to S., 1650 ft. from
E. to W., and has an approximate depth of 1200 ft. It is bordered by a
rim of trachytic rock, forming a black coronet above the greyish
volcanic dust and sand which covers its sides to a great depth. Whymper
found snow and ice under this sand. On the southern slope, at a height
of 15,059 ft., is a bare cone of porphyritic andesite called _El
Picacho_, "the beak," or _Cabeza del Inca_, "the Inca's head," with dark
cliffs rising fully 1000 ft., which according to tradition is the
original summit of the volcano blown off at the first-known eruption of
1532. The summit of Cotopaxi is usually enveloped in clouds; and even in
the clearest month of the year it is rarely visible for more than eight
or ten days.