The picture which Ulloa has given of their extraordinary manner of living would lose so much of its interest by being transferred into any other language than his own, that I cannot resist the temptation to continue the narrative in his words: “We generally kept within one hut,” says he; “indeed, we were obliged to do this, both on account of the intenseness of the cold, the violence of the wind, and our being continually involved in so thick a fog that an object at six or eight paces was hardly discernible. When the fog cleared up, the clouds, by their gravity, moved nearer to the surface of the earth, and on all sides surrounded the mountain to a vast distance; representing the sea, with our rock like an island in the centre of it. When this happened, we heard the horrid noises of the tempests, which then discharged themselves on Quito and the neighbouring country. We saw the lightning issue from the clouds, and heard the thunders roll far beneath us; and while the lower parts were involved in tempests of thunder and rain, we enjoyed a delightful serenity; the wind was abated, the sky clear, and the enlivening rays of the sun moderated the severity of the cold. But our circumstances were very different when the clouds arose; their thickness rendered respiration difficult; the snow and hail fell continually; and the wind returned with all its violence; so that it was impossible entirely to overcome the fears of being, together with our hut, blown down the precipice on whose edge it was built, or of being buried under it by the daily accumulation of ice and snow.