On two attempts to ascend Chimborazo / by Alexander von Humboldt ; translated from the German, and communicated at the request of the author by Martin Barry.

  • Alexander von Humboldt
Date:
[1837]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On two attempts to ascend Chimborazo / by Alexander von Humboldt ; translated from the German, and communicated at the request of the author by Martin Barry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    had withdrawn the ground from any geognostical examination. Great walls of rocks, extending from the N. E. towards the S. W., in part cleft into misshapen columns, reared themselves out of the eternal snow,—a brownish-black aiigite rock shining like pitch-stone porphyry. The columns were very thin, per- haps fifty to sixty feet in height, almost like the trachyte co- lumns of Tabla-Umca on the volcano Pichincha. One group stood alone, and reminded one of masts and stems of trees. The steep walls led us through the snow region to a narrow ridge of rock extending towards the summit, by which alone it was pos- sible for us to advance any farther; for the snow was then so soft that one scarcely dared to tread upon its surface. The ridge consisted of very weathered crumbling rock. It was often vesicular like a basaltic-amygdaloid. The path became more and more narrow and steep. The na- tives forsook us all but one at the height of 15,600 feet. All entreaties and threats were unavailing. The Indians maintain- ed that they suffered more than we did from breathlessness. We remained alone, Bonpland,—our amiable friend the younger son of the Marquis of Selvalegre, Carlos Montufar, who, in the subsequent struggle for freedom, was shot, (at the command of General Morillo),—a Mestizo from the neighbour- ing village of San Juan,—and myself. We attained, with great exertion and endurance, a greater height than we had dared hope to reach, as we were almost entirely wrapped in mist. The ridge (very significantly called, in Spanish, Cuchilla, as it were the knife-back) was in many places only eight to ten inches broad. On the left the precipice was concealed by snow, the surface of the latter seeming glazed with frost. The thin icy mirror-like surface had an inclination of about B0°. On the right our view sank shuddering 800 or 1000 feet into an abyss out of which projected, perpendicularly, snowless masses of rock. We held the body continually inclined towards this side, for the precipice upon the left seemed still more threaten- ing, because there no chance presented itself of grasping the toothed rock, and because, further, the thin ice-crust offered no security against sinking in the loose snow Only extremely light porous bits of dolerite could we roll down this crust of ice; and the inclined plane of snow was so extended that we lost
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