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. It has frequently ejected water.]
Ten miles farther south is the bare-headed Guamani range, over which
passes the road to the wild Napo country.[78] The view from the crest is
magnificent; but, like every grand panorama, eludes description. As we
look eastward over the beginnings of the mighty forest which stretches
unbroken to the Atlantic, the vast ridges, trending north and south, and
decreasing in height as they increase in distance, seem like the waves
of a great ocean rolling toward the mountains.
[Footnote 78: The culminating point of Guamani is _Sara-urcu_, a volcano
which threw out a vast quantity of ashes in 1843 and 1856.]
Near by stands Antisana in his snowy robe. This volcano ranks next to
Chimborazo in dignity. It has a double dome, and an elevation of 19,000
feet. Snow of Dian purity covers it for over 3000 feet; but, judging
from the enormous streams of lava on its sides, it must have been a
fierce volcano in ages past. The lava streams are worthy of the great
mountain from which they flowed. One of them (called "Volcan d'Ansango")
is ten miles long and five hundred feet deep, with an average slope of
15°. It is a magnificent sight, as seen from the surrounding paramo--a
stream of dark, ragged rocks coming down out of the clouds and snows
which cover the summit. The representative products of Antisana are a
black, cellular, vitreous trachyte, a fine-grained, tough porphyroid
trachyte, and a coarse reddish porphyroid trachyte. An eruption, as late
as 1590, is recorded in _Johnston's Phys. Atlas_. Humboldt saw smoke
issuing from several openings in March, 1802.
We ascended this volcano to the height of sixteen thousand feet. On its
side is the celebrated hacienda of Antisana, which, more than sixty
years ago, sheltered the great Humboldt from the sleet and rain and
blast of this lofty region. It was a welcome refuge to us, for we had
well nigh perished with cold on the dreary paramo. It is one of the
highest human habitations in the world, being thirteen thousand three
hundred feet above the sea, or a thousand feet higher than the Peak of
Teneriffe.[79] The mean temperature is the same as that of Quebec, so
that thirteen thousand feet in elevation at the equator is equal to 47°
in latitude.[80] Here is an extensive corral, inclosing thousands of
cattle, owned by a rheumatic old gentleman, Señor Valdevieso, who
supplies the beef-market of Quito.[81] A desire for beef has alone
brought man and his beast to this chilly altitude. It is difficult to
get a quart of milk, and impossible to find a pound of butter at this
hacienda. The predominant colors of the cattle are red and black. They
feed on the wild paramo grass, and the beef is not only remarkably
cheap, but superior in quality. The lasso is used in catching the
animals, but not so skillfully as by the Gauchos of Rio Plata. It is a
singular fact that cattle have followed men over the whole earth, from
the coast of Africa to the highlands of Antisana. The same species is
attacked by crocodiles and condors.
[Footnote 79: M. d'Abbadie professes to have visited a village in
Abyssinia (Arquiage) which is 12,450 feet above the sea. Potosi stands
13,500 feet.]
[Footnote 80: This agrees with Humboldt's calculation that a difference
of elevation of 278 feet produces the same effect on the annual
temperature as a change of one degree of latitude. According to the
experiments of Captain Pullen, the minimum temperature of the great
depths of the ocean 35°, and it commences soon after passing 12,000
feet.]
[Footnote 81: The great dépôts of cattle in Ecuador are at the two
extremes of elevation, the lowlands of St. Elena and the highlands of
Antisana. On the slope of Cayambi is another extensive cattle estate.]
The atmospheric pressure is here so small that they frequently bleed at
the nose and mouth when hunted. We have already given our experience in
ascending high altitudes. We may add that while the pulse of
Boussingault beat 106 pulsations at the height of 18,600 feet on
Chimborazo, ours was 87 at 16,000 feet on Antisana. De Saussure says
that a draught of liquor which would inebriate in the lowlands no
longer has that effect on Mont Blanc. This appears to be true on the
Andes; indeed, there is very little drunkenness in Quito. So the higher
we perch our inebriate asylums, the better for the patients.
Near the hacienda is a little lake called Mica, on which we found a
species of grebe, with wings so short it could not fly. Its legs, also,
seem fitted only for paddling, and it goes ashore only to lay its eggs.
It peeps like a gosling. Associated with them were penguins (in
appearance); they were so shy we could not secure one. The query is, How
came they there? Was this a centre of creation, or were the fowls
upheaved with the Andes? They could not have flown or walked to this
lofty lake, and there are no water-courses leading to it; it is
surrounded with a dry, rolling waste, where only the condor lives. We
turn to Darwin for an answer.[82]
[Footnote 82: The grebe is considered by Messrs. Cassin and Lawrence to
be the _Podiceps occipitalis_, Lisson (_P. calipareus et Chilensis_ of
Garnot), which occurs in large flocks on the coast of Chile and in the
Straits of Magellan. It is quite different from the _P. micropterus_ of
Lake Titicaca. At Morococha, Peru, 15,600 feet above the sea, Herndon
found snipes and ducks.]
The ragged Sincholagua[83] and romantic Rumiñagui follow Antisana, and
then we find ourselves looking up at the most beautiful and most
terrible of volcanoes. This is the far-famed Cotopaxi, or more properly
Cutu-pacsi, meaning "a brilliant mass." Humboldt calls it the most
regular and most picturesque of volcanic cones. It looks like a huge
truncated cone rising out of the Valley of Quito, its sides deeply
furrowed by the rivers of mud and water which have so often flowed out.
The cone itself is about six thousand feet high. The east side is
covered with snow, but the west is nearly bare, owing to the trade
winds, which, sweeping across the continent, carry the ashes westward.
Cotopaxi is the loftiest of active volcanoes, though its grand eruptions
are a century apart, according to the general rule that the higher a
volcano the less frequent its eruptions, but all the more terrible when
they do occur. Imagine Vesuvius on the summit of Mont Blanc, and you
have the altitude of Cotopaxi.
[Footnote 83: In Brigham's _Notes on the Volcanic Phenomena of the
Hawaiian Islands_, this volcano is put down as active, but there has
been no eruption in the memory of man. Its lithology is represented in
our collection by porous, gray, granular trachyte, fine-grained, compact
trachyte, and dark porphyroid trachyte. The derivation of Sincholagua is
unknown, Rumiñagui means the face of a rock, Cotopaxi, Sincholagua, and
Rumiñagui, and Cotopaxi, Pichincha, and Guamani, form equilateral
triangles.]
The top just reaches the middle point of density in the atmosphere, for
at the height of three miles and a half the air below will balance that
above. The crater has never been seen by man; the steepness of the sides
and the depth of the ashes covering them render it inaccessible. The
valiant Col. Hall tried it with scaling ladders, only to fail. The
telescope reveals a parapet of scoria on the brim, as on Teneriffe.
Humboldt's sketch of the volcano, so universally copied, is overdrawn.
It makes the slope about 50°, while in truth it is nearer 30°. The
apical angle is 122° 30'.[84]
[Footnote 84: MM. Zurcher and Margalli make the slope 55°! and Guzman,
69° 30'!! The slope of Mauna Loa is 6° 30'; of Etna, 9°; of Teneriffe,
12° 30'; of Vesuvius, 35°. While cinder-cones may have an angle of 40°,
lava-cones seldom exceed 10°.]
Cotopaxi is slumbering now; or, as Mr. Coan says of Hilo, it is "in a
state of solemn and thoughtful suspense." The only signs of life are the
deep rumbling thunders and a cloud of smoke lazily issuing from the
crater.[85] Sometimes at night the smoke looks like a pillar of fire,
and fine ashes and sand often fall around the base, to the great
annoyance of the farmers. On the south side is a huge rock of porphyry,
called the Inca's Head. Tradition has it that this was the original
summit of the volcano, torn off and hurled down by an eruption on the
very day Atahuallpa was murdered by Pizarro. The last great eruption
occurred in 1803, though so late as 1855 it tossed out stones, water,
and sand. Heaps of ruins, piled up during the lapse of ages, are
scattered for miles around the mountain, among them great boulders
twenty feet square. In one place (Quinchevar) the accumulation is 600
feet deep. Between Cotopaxi and Sincholagua are numerous conical hills
covering the paramo, reminding one of the mud volcanoes of Jorullo.
[Footnote 85: Even this has now (August, 1869) ceased, save an
occasional grumble, and the Tacungans are trembling with fear of another
eruption.]
Pumice and trachyte are the most common rocks around this mountain, and
these are augitic or porphyroid. Obsidian also occurs, though not on the
immediate flank, but farther down near Chillo. In plowing, thousands of
pieces as large as "flints" are turned up. The natives know nothing
about their origin or use; the large specimens were anciently polished
and used for mirror. But Cotopaxi is the great pumice-producing volcano.
The new road up the valley cuts through a lofty hill formed by the
successive eruptions; the section, presenting alternate layers of mud,
ashes, and pumice, is a written history of the volcano.[86] The cone
itself is evidently composed of similar beds super-imposed, and holding
fragments of porphyry and trachyte. What is Vesuvius, four thousand feet
high, to Cotopaxi, belching forth fire from a crater fifteen thousand
feet higher, and 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 scoriæ 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 _llánga_, 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 symmetry and beauty.[89] It stands 16,500 feet above the
Pacific, its upper part covered with a splendid robe of snow, while the
sugar-cane grows in the romantic town of Baños, 10,000 feet below the
summit. A cataract, 1500 feet high, comes down at three bounds from the
edge of the snow to the warm valley beneath; and at Baños a hot
ferruginous spring and a stream of ice-water flow out of the volcano
side by side. Here, too, the fierce youth of the Pastassa, born on the
pumice slopes of Cotopaxi, dashes through a deep tortuous chasm and down
a precipice in hot haste, as if conscious of the long distance before it
ere it reaches the Amazon and the ocean. Tunguragua was once a
formidable mountain, for we discovered a great stream of lava reaching
from the clouds around the summit to the orange-groves in the valley,
and blocking up the rivers which tumble over it in beautiful cascades.
It has been silent since 1780; but it can afford to rest, for then its
activity lasted seven years.[90]
[Footnote 89: From Tungúri, the ankle-joint, alluding to its apical
angle. It is a little steeper than Cotopaxi, having a slope of 38°.]
[Footnote 90: Spruce asserts that he saw smoke issuing from the western
edge in 1857; and Dr. Terry says that in 1832 smoke ascended almost
always from the summit. Dr. Taylor, of Riobamba, informs the writer that
smoke is now almost constantly visible. The characteristic rock is a
black vitreous trachyte resembling pitchstone, but anhydrous.]
Close by rises beautiful Altar, a thousand feet higher. The Indians call
it Capac-urcu, or the "Chief." They say it once overtopped Chimborazo;
but, after a violent eruption, which continued eight years, the walls
fell in. Its craggy crest is still more Alpine than Caraguairazo; eight
snowy peaks shoot up like needles into the sky, and surround an altar to
whose elevated purity no mortal offering will ever attain. The trachyte
which once formed the summit of this mountain is now spread in fragments
over the plain of Riobamba.
Leaving this broken-down volcano, but still the most picturesque in the
Andes, we travel over the rough and rugged range of Cubillin, till our
attention is arrested by terrific explosions like a naval broadside, and
a column of smoke that seems to come from the furnace of the Cyclops. It
is Sangai, the most active volcano on the globe. From its unapproachable
crater, three miles high, it sends forth a constant stream of fire,
water, mud, and ashes.[91]
[Footnote 91: La Condamine (1742) adds "sulphur and bitumen."]
No intermission has been noticed since the Spaniards first saw it three
hundred years ago. Stromboli is the only volcano that will compare with
it. Its ashes are almost always falling on the city of Guayaquil, one
hundred miles distant, and its explosions, generally occurring every
hour or two, are sometimes heard in that city. Wisse, in 1849, counted
267 explosions in one hour.
We have now completed the series. What an array of snow-clad peaks wall
in the narrow Valley of Quito--Nature's Gothic spires to this her
glorious temple! If ever there was a time when all these volcanoes were
active in concert, this secluded vale must have witnessed the most
splendid pyrotechnics conceivable. Imagine fifty mountains as high as
Etna, three of them with smoking craters, standing along the road
between New York and Washington, and you will have some idea of the ride
down this gigantic colonnade from Quito to Riobamba. If, as Ruskin says,
the elements of beauty are in proportion to the increase of mountainous
character, Ecuador is artistically beautiful to a high degree.
Here, amid these Plutonic peaks, are the energies of volcanic action
best studied. The constancy of the volcanic fires is a striking fact.
First we have the deluges of submarine lavas, which were poured out long
before the Andes lifted their heads above the waters; then alternate
porphyritic strata, feldspathic streams, and gypseous exhalations; then,
at a later day, floods of basaltic lava; next the old tertiary
eruptions; and, lastly, the vast accumulations of boulders, gravel,
ashes, pumice, and mud of the present day, spread over the Valley of
Quito and the west slope of the Cordilleras to an unknown depth beneath
the sea. The incessant eruptions of Sangai, and the frequent
earthquakes, show that the subterranean energy which heaved the Andes is
not yet expended.