(French, a petticoat), a brisk dance, in COTTOPEXI, the most remarkable volcanic mountain of the Andes, in Ecuador, 35 miles S.S.E. of Quito. It rises 18,878 feet above the level of the sea, and is considered as the most lofty of the colossal volcanoes of the Andes. Its eruptions have been numerous and very destructive; those which took place in 1742, 1744, 1768, and 1803, are the most remarkable. With respect to the explosion of 1803, Humboldt observes—"At the port of Guayaquil, fifty-two leagues distant in a straight line from the crater, we heard day and night the noise of this volcano, like continued discharges of a battery; and we distinguished these tremendous sounds even on the Pacific Ocean." In 1744 the thunderings of the volcano were heard at Honda, a town on the Rio Magdalena, at the distance of 200 common leagues. In 1768 the quantity of ashes ejected by its crater was so enormous, that in the towns of Hambato and Tacunga day broke only at three o'clock in the afternoon, and the inhabitants were obliged to use lanterns in walking the streets. For twenty years before 1803, no perceptible smoke or vapour had issued from the crater, when in a single night its cone became so hot that its vast snowy covering had disappeared, and the scorified rock, naked, and of a dusky red, met the astonished eye in the morning; while the sudden melting of the snow gave rise to alarming torrents of water. The appearance of this volcano is in the highest degree majestic and sublime. It is a perfect cone, and, being covered with a thick layer of snow, shines at sunset with dazzling splendour, standing forth in bold relief upon the azure heavens. The upper 440 feet are covered with snow, except the summit, which appears to be surrounded by a circular wall, and which, owing probably to the heat, is never covered with snow. Humboldt found it difficult to ascend the mountain as far as the line of perpetual snow, and he pronounces it impossible ever to reach the summit.