The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1899-10-26
EcUADOR'S VOLCANOES.
Within Human Vision Three Are Ae-
tive, Five Are SlGmbering;
Fourteen Are Extinct.

Church, the famous artist, has assert
ed that the grandest mountain scenery
NAV be found in Ecuador, and that
there is nothing elsewhere so imposing,
nothing so sublime, as the group OF vol
canic peaks that lie between Quito and
the sea, where he painted his wonderful
picture, "Ths Heart Ct the Andes No
Where are wilder freaks in geographical
formation; nowhere more startling
contrasts. Within human vision are
% volcanoes covered with everlasting
snow and over so feet higher than Mont
Blanc. Three of the volcanoes are ac-
tive, five are slumbering and the re-
mainder are extinct. The mountains of
Asia may surpass those of the Andes in
altitude, but there is no such group of
monsters elsewhere in the world.
A sea of foothills with the vapor
lowering over them like sleep upon
drowsy child stands in the foreground
beyond the jungles of the coast, and
growing holder and holder, more and
more rugged, rises in irregular terraces
which the Spaniards call ''sierras" be-
cause their uneven SUBMITS are like
the teeth of a saw. Behind and over
them the volcanoes lift their untrodden
and unapproachable submits with
stately grandeur, with SHOWS that have
lain for ages and still defy the tropical
sun. Some of the peaks are Irregular,
some are grotesque i'll outline, and the
imaginative minds of the natives have
fancied resemblances to various other
works of nature. Some are clamly,
grandly regular, and the even snow
upon their crests seems edged with gold
when it CO tches the reflection of the
sun. and is often rainbow of colors-
violet. crimson, purple and orange.
| Cotopaxi is the loftiest of active vol
| canoes, but it has been slumbering for
nearly 40 years. The only evidence of
internal activity is the constant rum
bling. which can often be heard and felt
100 miles away, and frequently thin
cloud of smoke is seen creeping from
the crater and dissolving into the thin
air. Edward Whymper, the English
scientist, climbed to the summit of
Chimborazo ten or twelve years ago,
| but no one has ever reached the top of
Cotopaxi. Many have attempted it,
but the walls are SO steep and the snow
is so deep that ascent IS impossible.
On the breast of Cotopaxi is a great
rock, more than 1000 feet high, which
the natives have named 1.-The Inca's
Head" That unreliable old storyteller
called tradition says that it was once
! the summit of the Volcano, and fell on
the day when the Spaniards strangled
Atahualpa, the last of the Inca en-
| perors.
The last great eruption of Cotopaxi
was in 1859. 1t was followed by a severe
earthquake, which caused great de-
struction and lpss of life in the sur
rounding towns and villages. In 1868
! the volcano Tunguragua. one of the
! largest of the group, and over 1900
| feet high, became very much excited,
and DISCHARGED immense masses of lava
and ashes simultaneously with terres-
trial CONFUSION which extended along
the entire South Pacific coast. 1t was
then that the tidal wave came into
Africa that lifted the United States
man-of-war Wateree over the roofs of
the houses and landed it with a straight
keel in sandy plateau about half a
mile from the ocean, where it still re-
mains. When / last saw it, 1t was used
as neutrality-suspicious. Record