Llanganati or Cerro Hermoso is chiefly known through the tradition that the treasures of the Incas were buried in a lake on its slopes. It consists of a group of summits, the highest being credited with 17,843 ft. Tunguragua, or Tungurahua, has a cone-shaped summit like that of Cotopaxi, with a slope of 38°. It rises from a plain somewhat lower than the neighbouring central plateau and stands free from the surrounding elevations, except on the south, which give it an exceptionally imposing appearance. Among its characteristic features is a cataract fed by melting snows, which descends 1500 ft. in three leaps, and an enormous basaltic lava-stream, which crosses the face of the mountain in a north-easterly direction. Its most notable eruption was in 1777. It has been sometimes classed among the extinct volcanoes, but smoke has been seen issuing from it at different dates, and a violent eruption occurred on January 12, 1886. The fertile cultivated valley of Baños, with its thermal springs, lies at the base of Tunguragua, which F. Hassaurek describes as "the most beautiful of all the snow peaks in the country." The next in line is El Altar, which the natives call Capac-Urcu ("king mountain"), whose broken cone and impressive outlines make it one of the most attractive mountains of Ecuador. Its summit comprises a group of eight snow-clad peaks, and its crater is surrounded by a steep and jagged wall of rocks. There is a tradition that this mountain was once higher than Chimborazo, but a series of eruptions caused the cone to fall in and reduced its summit to its present altitude and broken appearance. Altar has shown no signs of activity since the discovery of America. Sangay, or Sangai, the next and last large volcano to the south, is in a state of frequent eruption, however, and is known as one of the most restless volcanoes of the world. Since the Spanish conquest it has been in a state of uninterrupted activity, but no damage has been done, because there are no civilized settlements in its immediate vicinity. Though of great interest to scientific investigators because of this unceasing activity, and of its peculiar position in the Andean system, and because of the difficult and dangerous country by which it is surrounded, Sangay has been but rarely visited by European travellers. Its eruptions are not on a grand scale, but small outbursts of lava and explosions of steam occur at frequent intervals, and at longer intervals more violent explosions in which the molten rock is thrown 2000 ft. above its summit, and ashes are carried away as far as the streets of Guayaquil.