Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

214 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP, xix
glossums, etc. --growing in the Andes at 10,000
feet, where they must frequently endure frost ; yet
these are precisely the kinds that have been found
(hitherto) most difficult to cultivate in England.
The greatest height to which I have yet climbed
was 13,000 feet, on the volcano Pichincha, near
Quito. It is practicable to ride up to the very
edge of the crater (15,000 feet), and it was my
intention to do so, but my guide mistook the way,
and we got entangled in thickets at about 1 1 ,000
feet, where we had to dismount and cut a way for the
horses to pass, and finally to leave them tied to bushes
and continue the ascent on foot. I had only lately
emerged from the sick-room, and got very much
fatigued with two hours of steep, rugged climbing.
At the highest point we reached, we lay down to rest
on the grass, and I had lain a few minutes with my
eyes closed when I suddenly felt as it were a flag
waved over my face, and looking up saw an immense
condor sailing over us at only a few feet distance.
My companion sprang
to his feet with a shriek,
and prepared to defend himself with his staff.
" He thinks we are dead," said he, "and if we had
lain a moment longer we should have felt his beak
and claws in our faces !
'
The condor was immedi-
ately joined by two others of his species, but being
baulked of their prey, they rose in slowly widening
circles, and at length appeared only specks on the
bright heaven. This incident was additional con-
firmation to me that the vulture tribe hunt by sight
and not by scent. The condor is a magnificent
bird, but yet looks very much like a turkey-buzzard
on a large scale, and has not the noble aspect of the
golden eagle and the royal eagle of the Amazon.