This mountain is the loftiest of those volcanoes of the Andes which, at
recent epochs, have undergone eruptions. Notwithstanding it lies near
the equator, its summits are covered with perpetual snows. The absolute
hight of Cotopaxi is eighteen thousand, eight hundred and seventy-six
feet, or three miles and a half; consequently it is two thousand, six
hundred and twenty-two feet, or half a mile, higher than Vesuvius would
be, were that mountain placed on the top of the peak of Teneriffe!
Cotopaxi is the most mischievous of the volcanoes in the vicinity of
Quito, and its explosions are the most frequent and disastrous. The
masses of scoriæ, and the pieces of rock, thrown out of this volcano,
cover a surface of several square leagues, and would form, were they
heaped together, a prodigious mountain. In 1738, the flames of Cotopaxi
rose three thousand feet, or upward of half a mile, above the brink of
the crater. In 1744, the roarings of this volcano were heard at the
distance of six hundred miles. On the fourth of April, 1768, the
quantity of ashes ejected at the mouth of Cotopaxi was so great, that it
was dark till three in the afternoon. The explosion which took place in
1803, was preceded by the sudden melting of the snows which covered the
mountain. For twenty years before no smoke or vapor, that could be
perceived, had issued from the crater; but in a single night the
subterraneous fires became so active, that at sunrise the external walls
of the cone, heated to a very considerable temperature, appeared naked,
and of the dark color which is peculiar to vitrified scoriæ. “At the
port of Guyaquil,” observes Humboldt, “fifty-two leagues distant in a
straight line from the crater, we heard, day and night, the noise of
this volcano, like continued discharges of a battery; and we
distinguished these tremendous sounds even on the Pacific ocean.”
The form of Cotopaxi is the most beautiful and regular of the colossal
summits of the high Andes. It is a perfect cone, which, covered with a
perpetual layer of snow, shines with dazzling splendor at the setting of
the sun, and detaches itself in the most picturesque manner from the
azure vault above. This covering of snow conceals from the eye of the
observer even the smallest inequalities of the soil; no point of rock,
no stony mass, penetrating this coat of ice, or breaking the regularity
of the figure of the cone.