the thermometer stood at 13.9° R. [150]

[At the summit.] The road to the summit was very difficult on account
of the slippery clay earth and the tough network of plants; but the
last five hundred feet were unexpectedly easy, the very steep summit
being covered with a very thick growth of thinly leaved, knotted, mossy
thibaudia, rhododendra, and other dwarf woods, whose innumerable tough
branches, running at a very small height along the ground and parallel
to it, form a compact and secure lattice-work, by which one mounted
upwards as on a slightly inclined ladder. The point which we reached *
* * was evidently the highest spur of the horseshoe-shaped mountain
side, which bounds the great ravine of Rungus on the north. The top
was hardly fifty paces in diameter, and so thickly covered with trees
that I have never seen its like; we had not room to stand. My active
hosts, however, went at once to work, though the task of cutting a path
through the wood involved severe labor, and, chopping off the branches,
built therewith, on the tops of the lopped trees, an observatory, from
which I should have had a wide panoramic view, and an opportunity for
taking celestial altitudes, had not everything been enveloped in a
thick mist. The neighboring volcanoes were visible only in glimpses,
as well as San Miguel Bay and some lakes in the interior. Immediately
after sunset the thermometer registered 12.5° R. [151]

[The descent.] On the following morning it was still overcast; and
when, about ten o'clock, the clouds became thicker, we set out on
our return. It was my intention to have passed the night in a rancho,
in order next day to visit a solfatara which was said to be a day's
journey further; but my companions were so exhausted by fatigue that
they asked for at least a few hours' rest.