Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/45

 *[Footnote: *ment of the Chimborazo was made from the plain of Tapia, which is covered with pumice. It is situated to the west of the Rio Chambo, and its elevation, as determined by the barometer, is 1482 toises (9477 E. feet.) The Llanos de Luisa, and still more the plain of Sisgun, which is 1900 toises (12150 E. feet) high, would have given greater angles of altitude; I had prepared everything for making the measurement at the latter station when thick clouds concealed the summit of Chimborazo.

Those who are engaged in investigations on languages may not be unwilling to find here some conjectures respecting the etymology of the widely celebrated name of Chimborazo. Chimbo is the name of the Corregimiento or District in which the mountain of Chimborazo is situated. La Condamine (Voyage à l'Equateur, 1751, p. 184) deduces Chimbo from "chimpani," "to pass over a river." Chimbo-raço signifies, according to him, "la neige de l'autre bord," because at the village of Chimbo one crosses a stream in full view of the enormous snow-clad mountain. (In the Quichua language "chimpa" signifies the "other, or farther, side;" and chimpani signifies to pass or cross over a river, a bridge, &c.) Several natives of the province of Quito have assured me that Chimborazo signifies merely "the snow of Chimbo." We find the same termination in Carguai-razo. But razo appears to be a provincial word. The Jesuit Holguin, (whose excellent "Vocabulario de la Lengua general de todo el Peru llamada Lengua Qquichua ó del Inca," printed at Lima in 1608, is in my possession,) knows nothing of the word "razo." The genuine word]*