and at a higher angle they would not have reached their
present location. But we see no reason why they could not be the upper
portion of the solid trachyte cone blown into the air at the great
eruption which cleared out this enormous crater. There is a _rumipamba_,
or "field of stones," around each of the Quitonian volcanoes.

Leaving Pichincha, we travel northward along the battlemented Andes,
passing by the conical mountains of Yana-urcu and Cotocachi. Yana-urcu,
or "black mountain," is a mass of calcined rocks. Cotocachi (from
_cota_? and _cachi_, salt) is always snow-clad. On its side is Cuycocha,
one of the highest lakes in the world (10,200 feet), and formed by the
subsidence of a part of the volcano.

CHAPTER IX.

The Volcanoes of Ecuador.--Eastern
Cordillera.--Imbabura.--Cayambi.--Antisana.--Cotopaxi.--Llanganati.
--Tunguragua.--Altar.--Sangai.

Near the once busy city of Otovalo, utterly destroyed in the late
earthquake, the two Cordilleras join, and, turning to the right, we go
down the eastern range. The first in order is Imbabura,[77] which poured
forth a large quantity of mud, with thousands of fishes, seven years
before the similar eruption of Caraguairazo. At its feet is the
beautiful lake of San Pablo, five miles in circumference, and very deep.
It contains the little black fish (_Pimelodes cyclopum_) already
referred to as the only species in the valley, and the same that was
cast out by Imbabura and Caraguairazo. Next comes the square-topped
Cayambi--the loftiest mountain in this Cordillera, being nineteen
thousand five hundred feet. It stands exactly on the equator, a colossal
monument placed by the hand of Nature to mark the grand division of the
globe. It is the only snowy spot, says Humboldt, which is crossed by the
equator. Beautiful is the view of Cayambi from Quito, as its enormous
mass of snow and ice glows with crimson splendor in the farewell rays of
the setting sun. No painter's brush could do justice to the prismatic
tints which hover around the higher peaks. But this flood of glory is
soon followed by the pure whiteness of death. "Like a gigantic ghost
shrouded in sepulchral sheets, the mountain now hovers in the background
of the landscape, towering ghastly through the twilight until darkness
closes upon the scene."

[Footnote 77: From _imba_ (fish), and _bura_, to produce. Its name can
not be older than 1691, unless the mountain made similar eruptions
before