BALCONY VIEW OF THE ANDES.
"But all the time, during our walk through and around Quito, we find ourselves every few minutes fixing our eyes on the great peaks of the Andes and Cordilleras that rise around us. We are in the centre of the most volcanic region of the globe; there are fifty-one volcanoes in the chain of the Andes, and out of this number no less than twenty surround the valley where Quito stands. Three of the twenty are active, five are dormant, and twelve are extinct; they are all in a space two hundred miles long and thirty wide, and in addition to these volcanoes there are many other peaks not strictly volcanic. There are twenty-two mountains whose tops are covered with perpetual snow, and fifty that are each more than ten thousand feet high. Do you wonder that while looking at the city our thoughts are drawn towards the mountains in whose midst it is built?"
In the evening our friends arranged to visit the summit of Pichincha, the volcano which towers above Quito, and is easily reached. Mules can be ridden to the very edge of the crater, but there are not a dozen gentlemen of Quito who have ever made the journey to it; they are intending to do so at some future time, and this future never comes. Apart from the guides, it is probable that the mountain has been ascended more frequently by strangers than by native-born residents of the city.
Our party started from Quito in the afternoon, accompanied by two guides, and rode to a Jesuit monastery in the valley of Lloa, where they passed the night. Rising at daybreak the next morning, they rode through the forest which surrounds the mountain, up to the timber line, twelve thousand feet above the sea; the path was intricate and very difficult, as it was frequently blocked by fallen trees and obstructed by huge stones, which it was necessary to pass around. From the timber line they passed into a belt of stunted bushes, and then reached the point where vegetation ceases.
Here it was less laborious travelling, but by no means easy. By nine in the forenoon they were at the foot of the cone, where they left the mules in the care of one of the guides and finished the ascent on foot.
THE CRATER OF PICHINCHA.
Frank and Fred were of different opinions; the former declared the cone easier of ascent than that of Vesuvius, while the latter thought it was not. But they agreed that there was less of it than of the cone of Vesuvius, and therefore it was preferable; it was little more than two hundred feet high, and covered with sand and cinders at an incline of about thirty-five degrees. They had many slips and falls, but nothing of consequence; Frank was a few feet in advance of Fred when they reached the edge of the crater, and both gave a loud hurrah by way of encouragement to the Doctor, who was lagging behind.
They wanted to descend into the crater, but the guide refused to accompany them, and the Doctor counselled prudence, as the crater of Pichincha is the deepest in the world, and the descent is dangerous. Humboldt pronounced it inaccessible, from its great depth and precipitous descent, but since his time it has been explored. The first who ventured there were Garcia Moreno and Sebastian Wisse, in 1844; and next after them was Professor Orton, in 1867. The latter says he was obliged to use the greatest caution, and a single misstep would have sent him tumbling to the bottom of the abyss. At times he was almost paralyzed with fear, and felt that death was staring him in the face.