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TARAPOTO TO CANELOS 129
streaks far down its sides. To the right of Tungu-
ragua, and over the summit of Mount Abitagua,
appeared lofty blue hills, here and there painted
with white ; till on the extreme right was dimly
visible a snowy cone of exactly the same form as
Sangahy but much more distant and loftier ; this
was Cotopaxi, perhaps the most formidable volcano
on the surface of our globe. Far behind Tunguragua,
and peeping over its left shoulder, was
distinctly visible, though in the far distance, a
paraboloidal mass of unbroken snow ; this was the
summit of Chimborazo, so long considered the
monarch of the Andes, and though latterly certain
peaks in Bolivia have dethroned it, for ever immortalised
by its connection in men's memory with
such names as Humboldt and La Condamine.
Thus to right and left of the view I had a volcano.
Cotopaxi I never saw clearly but once, but Sangahy
was often visible when the rest of the Cordillera
was veiled in clouds, and on clear nights we could
distinctly see it vomiting forth flame every few
minutes. The first night I passed at Puca-yacu I
was startled by an explosion like that of distant
cannon, and not to be mistaken for thunder. It
came from
afterwards
Sangahy, and scarcely a
without my hearing the
clay passed
same sound
at first
once or oftener ; my ignorance of its origin
amused the people of Puca-yacu, to whom it was
a familiar sound.
[During his twenty days' delay at I'uca-yacu,
besides making notes on the in-m-i-al botanical
features of the district and collecting all the nc
Mosses and Hepatics he could find, Spruce also
made, as he states in his /'/rV/\ d'nn Voyage,
VOL. II
K