THE END.

FOOTNOTES:[1]Another division, consisting of Messrs. H.M. Myers, R.H. Forbes, and W. Gilbert, of Williams College, proceeded to Venezuela, and after exploring the vicinity of Lake Valencia, the two former traversed the Ilanos to Pao, descended the Apuré and ascended the Orinoco to Yavita, crossed the portage of Pimichin (a low, level tract, nine miles wide, separating the waters of the Orinoco from those of the Amazon), and descended the Negro to Manáos, making a voyage by canoe of over 2000 miles through a little-known but deeply-interesting region. A narrative of this expedition will soon be given to the public.[2]This eminent ornithologist died in the midst of his examination. Mr. George N. Lawrence, of New York, has identified the remainder, including all the hummers.[3]We have retained the common orthography of this word, thoughAmazons, used by Bates, is doubtless more correct, as more akin to the Brazilian nameAmazonas.[4]ThePyrophorus noctilucus, or "cucujo," found also in Mexico and the West Indies. It resembles our large spring-beetle. The light proceeds from two eye-like spots on the thorax and from the segments underneath. It feeds on the sugar-cane. On the Upper Amazon we found theP. clarus,P. pellucens, andP. tuberculatus. At Bahia, on the opposite coast, Darwin foundP. luminosus, the most common luminous insect.[5]The ancient name wasCulenta.[6]The continuity of the dry season is broken by a rainy fit commencing a few days after the autumnal equinox, and calledel Cordonazo de San Francisco. "Throughout South America (observes Mr. Spruce) the periodical alternations of dry and rainy weather are laid to the account of those saints whose 'days' coincide nearly with the epochs of change. But if the weather be rainy when it ought to be fair, or if the rains of winter be heavier than ordinary, the blame is invariably laid on the moon."[7]The turkey-buzzard, the "John Crow" of the West Indies, is not a social bird, though a score are often seen together: each comes and goes by himself.[8]In 1867 there were exported to Europe of cacao, 197,260 quintals; cotton, 10,247 do.; caucho, 8911 do.; sarsaparilla, 149 do.; orchilla, 10,247 packages; quinine, 5000 do.; tobacco, 2000 do.; coffee, 1611 do.; tamarinds, 65 bbls.; sides of leather, 22,514; hats, 8397.[9]Cordillera(pronounced Cor-de-yér-ra), literally a long ridge, is usually applied to a longitudinal subdivision of the Andes, as the east and west cordilleras inclosing the valley of Quito;Sierra(from the Spanish for saw or Arabicsehrah, an uncultivated tract) is a jagged spur of the Andes;Cerro, "a hog-backed hill."Paramo(a desert) is the treeless, uninhabited, uncultivated rolling steppes just below the snow-limit.[10]The mango of Asia is superior in size and flavor to that of America. It is eaten largely in Brazil by negroes and cattle. The cocoa-palm is also of Asiatic origin, and is most abundant in Ceylon. It has a swollen stem when young, but becomes straight and tall when mature. The flowers burst into a long plume of soft, cream-colored blossoms. It is worthy of remembrance that the most beautiful forms of vegetation in the tropics are at the same time most useful to man.[11]Ferns constitute one sixth of the flora of South America; Spruce counted 140 species within the space of three square miles. Their limits of growth are 500 and 7000 feet above the sea.[12]The altitude of 7000 feet is the usual limit of the rain-line on the west slope of the Andes. The condensation which produces rain takes place at the equator two or three times higher than in our latitude.[13]Fromadoub, an Egyptian word still used by the Copts; carried by the Moors to Spain, thence to America; and from America the word has gone to the Sandwich Islands.[14]This celebrated febrifuge was first taken to Europe about the middle of the seventeenth century, and was named after the Countess of Chinchon, who had been cured of intermittent fever at Lima. Afterward, when Cardinal de Lugo spread the knowledge of the remedy through France, and recommended it to Cardinal Mazarin, it received the name ofJesuits' Bark. The French chemists, Pelletier and Caverton, discovered quinine in 1820.[15]According to Sir J. Hooker, among the flowers which adorn the slopes of the Himalayas, rhododendrons occupy the most prominent place, and primroses next. There are no orchids, neither red gentians, but blue. Organic life ceases 3000 feet lower than on the Andes; yet it is affirmed that flowering plants occur at the height of 18,460 feet, which is equivalent to the summit of Chimborazo in point of temperature! The polylepis (P. racemosa) is one of theSanguisorbaceæ; in Quichua it isSachaquinoa.[16]This is shortened in parlance to Tacunga. The full name, according to La Condamine, isLlacta-cunga,llactameaning country, andcunga, neck.[17]Sometimes calledChisinche.[18]The son of his Quito love. The name was first writtenAtauhuallpa, meaning fortunate in war; after the fratricide, he was calledAtahuallpa, or game-cock. He was the Boabdil of this occidental Granada. He is called traitor by Peruvian writers, and is not admitted by them into the list of their Incas.[19]Geografia de la República del Ecuador, por Dr. Villavicencio.This work abounds with erroneous and exaggerated statements, but it is nevertheless a valuable contribution to Ecuadorian literature.[20]Four Years among Spanish Americans, by Hon. F. Hassaurek: a truthful work, to which we refer the reader for details, especially concerning Ecuadorian life and manners.[21]The following quotation, however, is true to the letter, and will apply equally well to Guayaquil and to Madrid—the mother of them both: "There is another want still more embarrassing in Quito than the want of hotels—it is the want of water-closets and privies, which are not considered as necessary fixtures of private residences. Men, women, and children, of all ages and colors, may be seen in the middle of the street, in broad daylight, making privies of the most public thoroughfares; and while thus engaged, they will stare into the faces of passers-by with a shamelessness that beggars description."—Hassaurek.[22]Spanish rhetoric is given to exaggeration. "All their geese are swans." A Peruvian assured us that Cuzco contained 200,000 souls. It is, in fact, about as large as Quito; Gibbon says 20,000.[23]"I must express my admiration at the natural politeness of almost every Chileno. We met, near Mendoza, a little and very fat negress, riding astride on a mule. She had agoîtreso enormous that it was scarcely possible to avoid gazing at her for a moment; but my two companions almost instantly, by way of apology, made the common salute of the country by taking off their hats. Where would one of the lower or higher classes in Europe have shown such feeling politeness to a poor and miserable object of a degraded race?"—Darwin's Naturalist's Voyage.[24]The Spanish tongue is the manly son of the Latin, as the Italian is the fair daughter; a language in which, as Charles V. said, "God ought alone to be addressed in prayer." It is spoken in America with an Andalusian rather than Toledan pronunciation.[25]We are indebted to Mr. Hassaurek for this capital illustration. Every lady, married or unmarried, is addressedSeñorita, or Miss.[26]"When speaking of these countries, the manner in which they have been brought up by their unnatural parent, Spain, should always be borne in mind. On the whole, perhaps, more credit is due for what has been done, than blame for that which may be deficient."—Darwin's Journal of Researches, p. 158.[27]The vase is still shown in which Father Rixi brought the first wheat from Europe. It was sown in what is now the San Francisco Plaza, the chief market-place of the city.[28]"The young ladies of Cuzco are, in general, very beautiful, with regular features, fresh olive complexions, bright eyes full of intelligence, furnished with long lashes, and masses of black hair plaited in two tails."—Markham.[29]We noticed at Riobamba a custom which formerly prevailed also at Quito. As soon as the guests have finished, and before they have risen, the Indian waiter kneels devoutly down beside the table, and offers thanks in a very solemn, touching tone.[30]Since this was written, Garcia Moreno has been re-elected to the presidency and the Constitution revised.[31]Government has more than once paid its debts by repudiation. Congress lately voted to pay only seven per cent. of the claims against the state which are dated prior to a certain year. Among the sufferers is the venerable Dr. Jameson, a distinguished foreigner, who has served this country faithfully for forty years, first as assayer, then as director of the mint, and always by his scientific position.[32]Asking the late Chilian minister for his view of the rank of the different South American states, he gave us this order: Chile, Brazil, Argentine Republic, Venezuela, New Granada, Central America, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador.[33]This was a new thing under the sun. Quitonians "bury at dead of night, with lanterns dimly burning." The dirges sung as the procession winds through the streets are extremely plaintive, and are the most touching specimens of Ecuadorian music. The corpse, especially of a child, is often carried in a chair in a sitting posture. The wealthy class wall up their dead in niches on the side of Pichincha, hypothetically till the resurrection, but really for two years, when, unless an additional payment is made, the bones are thrown into a common pit and the coffin burnt. To prevent this, a few who can afford it embalm the deceased. One of the most distinguished citizens of Quito keeps his mummified father at his hacienda, and annually dresses him up in a new suit of clothes![34]In the mountain-town of Caxamarca, farther south, there were living in 1792 seven persons aged 114, 117, 121, 131, 132, 141, and 147. One of them, when he died, left behind him eight hundred living descendants to mourn his loss. We confess, however, that we saw very few old persons in Quito. Foreigners outlive the natives, because they live a more regular and temperate life.[35]The mean annual fall of rain at Quito is 70 inches.""""Charleston is 45.9inches.""""New York is 42.23"""""Albany is 40.93"""""Montreal is 36"""""Madrid is 10."[36]Gibbon states that the temperature of the blood of a young bull in Cuzco was 100°; air, 57°. At the base of the Andes a similar experiment resulted in 101° for the blood, air 78°. The lieutenant jocosely adds: "The Spaniards have forced the hog so high up on the Andes that he suffers every time he raises his bristles, and dies out of place."—Puna has been attributed to the presence of arsenical vapor.[37]On the Himalayas are oaks, birches, pines, chestnuts, maples, junipers, and willows; no tree-ferns, bamboos, or palms.[38]TheAgava Americanaof botanists,cabullaof Ecuadorians,magueyof Venezuelans, andmetlof Mexicans. It is an interesting fact, brought to light by the researches of Carl Neuman, that the Chinese in the fifth century passed over to America by way of the Aleutian Islands, and penetrated as far south as Mexico, which they called the land offusung, that being the celestial name of the aloe. Terzozomoc, the high-priest of the ancient Mexicans, gave aloe leaves, inscribed with sacred characters, to persons who had to journey among the volcanoes, to protect them from injury.[39]Bollaert derives the name fromchiri(cold) andmuhu(seed).[40]Dr. Jameson has found the following species ofRubusin the valley of Quito:macrocarpus,stipularis,glabratus,compactus,glaucus,rosæflorus,loxensis,urticæfolius,floribundus, andnubigenus. The common strawberry,Fragaria vesca, grows in the valley, as also theChilensis.[41]Lieutenant Gilliss praises the potatoes of Peru, but we saw no specimens in Ecuador worthy of note. The "Irish potato" is a native of the Andes. It was unknown to the early Mexicans. It grows as far south on this continent as lat. 50°. The Spaniards carried the potato to Europe from Quito early in the sixteenth century. From Spain it traveled to Italy, Belgium, and Germany. Sir Walter Raleigh imported some from Virginia in 1586, and planted them on his estate near Cork, Ireland. It is raised in Asiatic countries only where Europeans have settled, and for their consumption. It is successfully grown in Australia and New Zealand, where there is no native esculent farinaceous root. Von Tschudi says there is no word in Quichua for potato. It is calledpapaby the Napos.[42]Journal of Researches, p. 132.[43]The llama, or "mountain-camel" is a beautiful animal, with long, slender neck and fine legs, a graceful carriage, pointed ears, soft, restless eyes, and quivering lips. It has a gentle disposition; but when angry it will spit, and when hurt will shed tears. We have seen specimens entirely white; but it is generally dark brown, with patches of white. It requires very little food and drink. Since the introduction of horses, asses, and mules, the rearing of llamas has decreased. They are more common in Peru. The llama, guánaco, alpaca, and vicuña were "the four sheep of the Incas:" the first clothing the common people, the second the nobles, the third the royal governors, the fourth the Incas. The price of sheep's wool in Quito was formerly four cents a pound; it is now twelve.[44]Mr. Gould, however, holds that the difference of coloration is due to the different degrees of exposure to the sun's rays, the brilliantly-colored species being inhabitants of the edges of the forest. Birds from Ucayali, in the centre of the continent, are far more splendid than those which represent them in countries nearer the sea, owing to the clearer atmosphere inland. But it is a fact, at least exceptional to this theory, that the "Cock of the Rock" (Rupicola) on the western side of the Andes (Esmeraldas) is of a richer, deeper color than the same species on the eastern slope (Napo). In keeping with Mr. Gould's theory is the statement by Mr. Bates, that the most gaudy butterflies (the males) flutter in the sunshine.[45]Herpetodryas carinatus, which we observed also at Guayaquil and on the Marañon. We procured two or three species from the natives, and several new forms from Pallatanga, on the west slope.[46]Antelopus lævisat Ambato, andA. longirostris, a new species from Antisana Hacienda, were the only frogs noticed. The little fish isPimelodes cyclopum(preñadilla of the Spaniards,imbaof the Indians), the same that was thrown out in the eruptions of Imbabura and Caraguairazo.[47]The jigger, chigoe, or nigua (Pulex penetransof science) is a microscopic flea, that buries itself under the skin and lays a myriad eggs; the result is a painful tumor. Jiggers are almost confined to sandy places.[48]"History (says Prescott) furnishes few examples of more absolute authority than such a revolution in the language of an empire at the bidding of a master." The pronunciation of Quichua requires a harsh, explosive utterance. Gibbon says the sound of it to him resembled Welsh or Irish; that of Aymará, English. The lettersb,d,f,g, andoare wanting in the ancient tongue of Quito;pwas afterward changed tob,ttod,vtof,ctog, andutoo: thus Chim-pu-razu is now Chimborazo. A few words bear a striking analogy to corresponding Sanscrit words; asYnti, the Inca for sun, andIndra, the Hindoo god of the heavens.[49]Their favorite musical instrument is therondador, a number of reeds of different lengths tied in a row. The "plaintive national songs" which Markham heard at Cuzco are not sung in Ecuador.[50]At Paita, the most western point of South America, there is a raised beach three hundred feet high. The basal slate and sandstone rocks, dipping S. of E., are covered by conglomerate, sand, and a gypseous formation, containing shells of living species. Additional to those described by D'Orbigny we found hereCerithium læviuscula,Ostrea gallus, andAmpullina Ortoni, as determined by W.M. Gabb, Esq., of Philadelphia. Darwin found shells in Chile 1300 feet above the sea, covered with marine mud. President Loomis, of Lewisburg University, Pa., informs the writer, that in 1853, after nearly a day's ride from Iquique, he came to a former sea-beach. "It furnished abundant specimens ofPatellæand other shells, still perfect, and identical with others that I had that morning obtained at Iquique with the living animal inhabiting them." This beach is elevated 2500 feet above the Pacific. The same observer says that near Potosi there is one uninterrupted mass of lava, having a columnar structure, not less than one hundred miles in length, fifty miles wide, and eight hundred feet thick. It overlies a bed of saliferous sandstone which has been worked for salt. Fifty feet within a mine, and in the undisturbed rock which forms its roof, the doctor found fragments of dicotyledonous trees with the bark on, undecomposed, uncharred, and fibrous.[51]The name Andes is often derived fromanta, an old Peruvian word signifying metal. But Humboldt says: "There are no means of interpreting it by connecting it with any signification or idea; if such connection exist, it is buried in the obscurity of the past." According to Col. Tod, the northern Hindoos apply the name Andes to the Himalayan Mountains.[52]On this point see Chapter XVII.[53]"The interior plateau of Brazil (says Dr. Lund) is composed of horizontal strata of the transition period, which are nowhere covered with the secondary or tertiary formations." The highest point in Brazil is 5755 feet. Darwin speaks of "some ancient submarine volcanic rocks (in the province of La Plata) worth mentioning, from their rarity on this eastern side of the continent." With the exception of the coast of Venezuela, the eastern system is little exposed to earthquakes.[54]These three plains constitute four fifths of all South America east of the Andes. The west slope of the Ecuadorian Andes is about 275 feet per mile; on the east it is 125 feet.[55]There is, however, a striking coincidence between the mountain and river systems of the northern and southern continents of this hemisphere. Thus,The Andes represent the Rocky Mountains,"Highland of Guiana represent the Canadian Mountains.""Brazil"Appalachian""Amazon"Saskatchewan."La Plata"Mississippi."Orinoco"Mackenzie.[56]The width of the chain south of the equator varies with that of the continent.[57]"No mountains which I have seen in Hungary, Saxony, or the Pyrenees are as irregular as the Andes, or broken into such alternate substances, manifesting such prodigious revolutions of nature."—Helms. "More sublime than the Alps by theirensemble, the Andes lack those curious and charming details of which Nature has been so lavish in the old continent."—Holinski.[58]This lake is the largest fresh-water accumulation in South America. It has diminished within the historic period. Its surface is 12,795 feet above the Pacific, or higher than the highest peaks of the Pyrenees.[59]This is the loftiest summit of the Andes in the northern hemisphere, being 18,200 feet. It is also remarkable for being situated farther from the sea (120 miles) than any other active volcano.[60]"As a general rule, whenever the mass of mountains rises much above the limit of perpetual snow, the primitive rocks disappear, and the summits are trachyte or trappean porphyry."—Humboldt. In general, "the great Cordilleras are formed of innumerable varieties of granites, gneiss, schists, hornblende, chloritic slates, porphyries, etc., and these rocks alternate with each other in meridional bands, which in the ridges frequently present the appearance of a radiated or fan-shaped structure, and under the plains are more or less vertical."—Evan Hopkins, F.G.S.[61]Von Tschudi makes the incorrect statement that "throughout the whole extent of South America there is not a single instance of the Western Cordillera being intersected by a river." Witness the Esmeraldas.[62]It is a singular fact that true trachyte, pumice, and obsidian are wanting in the volcanic Galápagos Islands, only 700 miles west of Pichincha.[63]As many of the crystals are partly fused, or have round angles, the porphyries were probably formed by the melting of a crystalline rock, the base becoming fused into a homogeneous material, while the less fusible crystals remain imbedded.—Dr. Hunt.[64]In the Galápagos volcanoes the south wall is lowest, while the craters in Mexico and Sandwich Islands are lowest on the northeast.[65]The altitudes of the most important Ecuadorian volcanoes are:Western Chain.Eastern Chain.Chimborazo, 21,420 feet (Humboldt).Cayambi, 19,648 feet (Humboldt); 19,358 (Wisse).Caraguairazo, 19,183 feet (Humboldt). It is variously estimated from 15,673 feetto 19,720 feet; 18,000 feet is not far from the truth.Antisana, 19,148 feet (Humboldt); 19,279 (Wisse).Cotopaxi, 18,880 feet (Humboldt); 18,862 (Wisse).Iliniza, 17,370 feet (Wisse); 16,300 (Hall).Altar, 17,400 feet.Cotocachí, 16,440 feet (Humboldt); 16,409 (Wisse).Sangai, 17,120 feet (Wisse).Pichincha, 15,922 feet (Humboldt); 15,827 (Orton).Tunguragua, 16,579 feet (Humboldt).Sincholagua, 16,434 feet (Humboldt).[66]The snow limit at the equator is 15,800 feet. No living creature, save the condor, passes this limit; naked rocks, fogs, and eternal snows mark the reign of uninterrupted solitude. The following is the approximate limit of perpetual snow in different latitudes:0°5,800feet.40°8,300feet.27°18,800"54°3,700"33°12,780"70°3,300"The limit appears to descend more rapidly going south of the equator than in going north.[67]We traveled over a portion of this ancient road in going from Riobamba to Cajabamba. It is well paved with cut blocks of dark porphyry. It is not graded, but partakes of the irregularity of the country. Designed, not for carriages, but for troops and llamas, there are steps when the ascent is steep.[68]Grand as the Andes are, how insignificant in a general view! How slightly they cause our globe to differ from a perfect sphere! Cotopaxi constitutes only1/1100of the earth's radius; and on a globe six feet in diameter, Chimborazo would be represented by a grain of sand less than1/20of an inch in thickness.[69]But Chimborazo is steeper than the Alp-king; and steepness is a quality more quickly appreciated than mere massiveness. "Mont Blanc (says a writer inFrazer's Magazine) is scarcely admired, because he is built with a certain regard to stability; but the apparently reckless architecture of the Matterhorn brings the traveler fairly on his knees, with a respect akin to that felt for the leaning tower of Pisa, or the soaring pinnacles of Antwerp."[70]"White Mountain" is the natural and almost uniform name of the highest mountains in all countries: thus Himalaya, Mont Blanc, Hocmus, Sierra Nevada, Ben Nevis, Snowdon, Lebanon, White Mountains of United States, Chimborazo, and Illimani.[71]Humboldt's statement that the condor flies higher than Chimborazo has been questioned; but we have seen numbers hovering at least a thousand feet above the summit of Pichincha. Baron Müller, in his ascent of Orizaba, saw two falcons flying at the height of full 18,000 feet; Dr. Hooker found crows and ravens on the Himalayas at 16,500 feet; and flocks of wild geese are said to fly over the peak of Kintschinghow, 22,756 feet.[72]Mount Everest is 29,000 feet, and Aconcagua 23,200. Schlagintweit enumerates thirteen Himalayan summits over 25,000 feet, and forty-six above 20,000. We have little confidence in the estimates of the Bolivian mountains. Chimborazo has nearly the same latitude and altitude as the loftiest peak in Africa, Kilima Njaro.[73]Humboldt ascribes the absence of glaciers in the Andes to the extreme steepness of the sides, and the excessive dryness of the air. Dr. Loomis, above quoted, mentions indications of glacial action—moraines, and polished and striated rocks—on the crest of the Cordillera, between Peru and Bolivia, lat. 21° S.[74]Pichincha, in the Inca language, signifies "the boiling mountain;" Rucu means old; Guagua, young; and Cundur-guachana, the condor's nest.[75]More accurately, 2527 feet; Wisse and Moreno made it 2460.[76]The snow on the top of Mont Blanc is like dry dust; in Lapland, in open places, it consists of hexagonal crystals, and is called by the inhabitants "sand-snow." The French and Spanish mathematicians, Bouguer, La Condamine, and Ulloa, in their story of ascending Pichincha, give a long and dreadful account of their sufferings from cold and rarefied air: "whilst eating, every one was obliged to keep his plate over a chafing-dish of coals, to prevent his food from freezing." The traveler nowadays finds only a chilling wind. This rise of temperature, coupled with the fact that La Condamine (1745), Humboldt (1802), Boussingault (1831), and Wisse (1863) give to Quito a decreasing altitude, inclines us to believe, with Boussingault, that the Andes are sinking. Since the activity of the volcano in 1868, the summit has been so warm that the snow has totally disappeared. Ice-cream has in consequence risen in price in Quito, as snow must be brought from Sincholagua, four days' journey.[77]Fromimba(fish), andbura, to produce. Its name can not be older than 1691, unless the mountain made similar eruptions before. It has frequently ejected water.[78]The culminating point of Guamani isSara-urcu, a volcano which threw out a vast quantity of ashes in 1843 and 1856.[79]M. d'Abbadie professes to have visited a village in Abyssinia (Arquiage) which is 12,450 feet above the sea. Potosi stands 13,500 feet.[80]This agrees with Humboldt's calculation that a difference of elevation of 278 feet produces the same effect on the annual temperature as a change of one degree of latitude. According to the experiments of Captain Pullen, the minimum temperature of the great depths of the ocean 35°, and it commences soon after passing 12,000 feet.[81]The great dépôts of cattle in Ecuador are at the two extremes of elevation, the lowlands of St. Elena and the highlands of Antisana. On the slope of Cayambi is another extensive cattle estate.[82]The grebe is considered by Messrs. Cassin and Lawrence to be thePodiceps occipitalis, Lisson (P. calipareus et Chilensisof Garnot), which occurs in large flocks on the coast of Chile and in the Straits of Magellan. It is quite different from theP. micropterusof Lake Titicaca. At Morococha, Peru, 15,600 feet above the sea, Herndon found snipes and ducks.[83]In Brigham'sNotes on the Volcanic Phenomena of the Hawaiian Islands, this volcano is put down as active, but there has been no eruption in the memory of man. Its lithology is represented in our collection by porous, gray, granular trachyte, fine-grained, compact trachyte, and dark porphyroid trachyte. The derivation of Sincholagua is unknown, Rumiñagui means the face of a rock, Cotopaxi, Sincholagua, and Rumiñagui, and Cotopaxi, Pichincha, and Guamani, form equilateral triangles.[84]MM. Zurcher and Margalli make the slope 55°! and Guzman, 69° 30'!! The slope of Mauna Loa is 6° 30'; of Etna, 9°; of Teneriffe, 12° 30'; of Vesuvius, 35°. While cinder-cones may have an angle of 40°, lava-cones seldom exceed 10°.[85]Even this has now (August, 1869) ceased, save an occasional grumble, and the Tacungans are trembling with fear of another eruption.[86]Compare the following sections:Cotopaxi(near Tiupullo).Vesuvius(at Pompeii).Soil1ft.0in.Soil3ft.0in.Fine yellow pumice5"0"Brown incoherent tuff1"6"Compact black ashes, with seams of pumice10"0"Small scoriæ and white lapilli0"3"Fine yellow pumice1"6"Brown earthy tuff4"9"Compact black ashes12"0"Whitish lapilli0"1"Fine yellow pumice2"0"Gray solid tuff0"3"Compact black ashes, with seams of pumice.Pumice and white lapilli0"3"[87]Immediately south of Cotopaxi, the Cordillera consists of paramos sown with lakes and morasses, and is rarely covered with snow. Llanganati is probably fromllánga, to touch: they touch the sources of nearly all the Ecuadorian rivers.[88]The story is doubtless due to the fact that the eastern streams, which issue from the foot of this cordillera, are auriferous.[89]From Tungúri, the ankle-joint, alluding to its apical angle. It is a little steeper than Cotopaxi, having a slope of 38°.[90]Spruce asserts that he saw smoke issuing from the western edge in 1857; and Dr. Terry says that in 1832 smoke ascended almost always from the summit. Dr. Taylor, of Riobamba, informs the writer that smoke is now almost constantly visible. The characteristic rock is a black vitreous trachyte resembling pitchstone, but anhydrous.[91]La Condamine (1742) adds "sulphur and bitumen."[92]Compare the table-lands in the Old World:Thibet11,500feet.South Africa6,000"Mysore (India)2,880"Spain2,240"Bavaria1,770"[93]The altitude of Loja is 6768 feet; of Cuenca, 8640 feet.[94]According to Villavicencio,Rio(orRie) is Quichua for road;bambais plain.[95]Atuntaqui received its name from the big drum which was kept here in the days of Huayna-Capac, to give the war-signal.[96]Professor Quinby, of the University of Rochester, has, at our request, calculated the position of the moon at the late earthquake: "August 16th, 1868, 1A.M., the moon was on meridian 137° 21' east of that of Quito, or 42° 30' past the lower meridian of Quito, assuming the longitude of Quito west of Greenwich to be 79°, which it is very nearly. This is but little after the vertex of the tidal wave should have passed the meridian of Quito, on the supposition that the interior of the earth is a liquid mass. The age of the moon at that time was 27.36 days,i.e., it was only about two days before new moon." At the time of the earthquake, 8A.M., March 22, 1859, the moon was on meridian 25° 48' east of that of Quito, and was 17.6 days old. Shocks have since occurred, March 20th at 3A.M., and April 10th at 8A.M., 1869.[97]The boundary-line between Ecuador and Peru is about as indefinite as the eastern limit of Bolivia, Brazilians claiming "as far west as the cattle of the empire roam."[98]Quito might be made more accessible on the Atlantic than on the Pacific side. But Ecuadorians dote on Guayaquil, and refuse to connect themselves directly with the great nations of the East. We believe there is a glorious future for Quito, when it will once more become a city of palaces. But it will not come until a road through the wilderness and a steamer on the Napo open a short communication with the wealth of Amazonia and the enterprise of Europe.[99]All savages appear to possess to an uncommon degree the power of mimicry.—Darwin.[100]Gibbon observes of his Indian paddlers on the Marmoré: "They talk very little; they silently pull along as though they were sleeping, but their eyes are wandering all the time in every direction."[101]Some of these feminines, however, have a method of retaliation which happily does not exist further north. They render their husbands idiotic by giving them an infusion offloripondio, and then choose another consort. We saw a sad example of this near Riobamba, and heard of one husband who, after being thus treated, unconsciously served his wife and her new man like a slave.Floripondiois the seed of theDatura sanguinea, which is allied to the poisonousstramoniumused by the priests of Apollo at Delphi to produce their frantic ravings.[102]Jacquinia armillaris, an evergreen bush. The Indians on the Tapajos use a poisonous liana calledtimbó(Paullinia pinnata).[103]It is there calledzarabatanaorgravatana; by the Peruvianspucuna. It corresponds to thesumpitanof Borneo. It is difficult to recognize the use of the blow-gun, but the natives will kill at the distance of 150 feet. One which we brought home sent the slender arrow through the panel of a door.[104]This thorny palm is calledtucumin Brazil. The fibres of the budding top are used. A woman will twist a hundred yards of twine a day, and make a living by selling hammocks for twenty-five cents a piece.[105]Bates (ii., 132) speaks of a similar custom among the ancient Mundurucus: "They used to sever the head with knives made of broad bamboo, and then, after taking out the brain and fleshy parts, soak it in bitter vegetable oils, and expose it several days over the smoke of a fire, or in the sun."[106]A like custom existed among some Brazilian and Guiana tribes. It also prevailed to some extent among the ancient Cantabrians and Corsicans, the Congos and Tartars, and in the Southern French provinces.[107]The scarcity of game is well illustrated by the fate of Pizarro and his comrades. In returning from their expedition to the Napo country, they nearly perished with hunger, living on lizards, dogs, horses, saddles, sword-belts, etc., and reached Quito looking more like spectres than men.[108]"Jerked beef," as it is called in South America, consists of thin strips cut off the carcass after skinning and dried in the sun. The butchers do not distinguish between sirloin and round.[109]This is the rum of the Andes, corresponding to thecashaçaof Brazil. It is distilled from sugar-cane. When double-distilled and flavored with anise, it is calledanisado.[110]The following is a copy of the President's order:REPUBLICA DEL ECUADORMinisteria de Estado en el Despacho del Interior.Quito á 18 de Octubre, de 1807.APERTORIA.A las autoridades del transito hasta el Napo, i á los demas empleados civiles i militares de la provincia del Oriente:El Sor. James Orton, ciudadano de los EE. UU. de América, profesor de la Universidad de Rochester en Nueva-York, i jefe de una comision cientifica del Instituto de Smithsonian de Washington, vá á la provincia de Oriente con el objeto de esplorarla en cumplimiento de su encargo. S.E. el Presidenta de la República ordena á U.U. presten al espresado Sor. Orton i su comitiva cuantas consideraciones merecen sus personas, i los ausilios i co-operacion que necesiten para verificar su viaje i hacer sus estudios i observaciones.Dios gue. á U.U.R. Carvajal.[111]The king of this fabulous land was said to wear a magnificent attire fragrant with a costly gum, and sprinkled with gold dust. His palace was of porphyry and alabaster, and his throne of ivory.[112]We give below the autograph of this wisest man in all the Oriente: "Recibio del Señor James Orton la suma de centos (100) pesos por vente (20) peones hasta Archidona.Autograph of an Indian"Papallacta, 4 Nov., 1867."[113]"Distance is frequently estimated by the time that a man will occupy in taking a chew of coca," or 37½ minutes.—Herndon.[114]Humboldt speaks of this as an active volcano, "from which detonations are heard almost daily." We heard nothing. It is possible that he meant Guamani.[115]The Chasuta Indians, Herndon says, eat musquitoes that they catch on their bodies with the idea of restoring the blood which the insect has abstracted.[116]Sometimes calledyuca dulce, or sweet yuca, to distinguish it from theyuca brava, or wild yuca, the mandioca of the Amazon, from which farina is made. The yuca is the beet-like root of a little tree about ten feet high. It is a good substitute for potatoes and bread.[117]Vanilla belongs to the orchid family, and is the only member which possesses any economical value. It is a graceful climber and has a pretty star-like flower.[118]In Peru, the liquor made from yuca is calledmasato.[119]Rock-salt is found on both sides of the Andes. "The general character of the geology of these countries would rather lead to the opinion that its origin is in some way connected with volcanic heat at the bottom of the sea."—Darwin'sObservations, pt. iii., p. 235.[120]"The Napo (Herndon was told) is very full of sand-banks, and twenty days from its mouth (or near the confluence of the Curaray) the men have to get overboard and drag the canoes!"—Report, p. 229.[121]The chief difficulty throughout the Upper Amazon is in getting the Indians to concentrate along the bank. But honorable dealing would accomplish this in time.[122]Its actual source is the Rio del Valle, which runs northward through the Valle Vicioso. Its longest tributary, the Curaray, rises only a few miles to the south in the Cordillera de los Mulatos. The two rivers run side by side 4° of longitude before meeting. Coca, the northern branch, originates in the flanks of Cayambi. The Napo and its branches are represented incorrectly in every map we have examined. The Aguarico is confounded with the Santa Maria and made too long, and the Curaray is represented too far above the mouth of the Napo. There are no settlements between Coca and Camindo.[123]From specimens of sand which we obtained at different points in descending the river, we find that at Coca it contains 17.5 per cent. of pure quartz grains, the rest being colored dark with augite: at the mouth of the Napo there is 50 per cent. of pure quartz, the other half being light-colored and feldspathic.[124]Monkeys form an article of food throughout tropical America. The meat is tough, but keeps longer than any other in that climate. The Indians told Gibbon that "the tail is the most delicate part when the hair is properly singed."[125]Thetrapicheor sugar-mill of the Andes is a rude affair. The cane is pressed between cogged wooden cylinders worked by bullocks, and the juice is received in troughs made of hollowed logs.[126]Bates says the Mundurucus express surprise by making a clicking sound with their teeth, and Darwin observes that the Fuegians have the habit of making a chuckling noise when pleased.[127]The like perfect equality exists among the Fuegian tribes. "A piece of cloth given to one is torn into shreds and distributed, and no one individual becomes richer than another."—Darwin.[128]Some orchid is in flower all the year round. The finest species is theodontoglossum, having long, chocolate-colored petals, margined with yellow. "Such is their number and variety (wrote Humboldt) that the entire life of a painter would be too short to delineate all the magnificent Orchideæ which adorn the recesses of the deep valleys of the Peruvian Andes." For many curious facts respecting the structure of these flowers, see Darwin'sFertilization of Orchids.[129]In the Quichua of Quito the peccari is calledsaino.[130]The Uaupes on the Napo, according to Wallace, will not eat peccari meat. "Meat putrifies in this climate (of the Tapajos) in less than twenty-four hours, and salting is of no use unless the pieces are cut in thin slices and dried immediately in the sun."—Bates.[131]The specific name was strangely given for its habit, when young, of darting upon mice. Anaconda is a Ceylonese word.[132]Sand-flies are called by the nativesmusquitoes, and what we call musquitoes they callsancudos.[133]Herndon makes the mouth of the Napo 150 yards broad, and the soundings six or seven fathoms. This is not a fair representation; for the Napo, like all the other tributaries, empties its waters by several mouths. At Camindo, five miles above the confluence, the Napo is certainly a mile wide.[134]Urarí is mentioned by Raleigh. Humboldt was the first to take any considerable quantity to Europe. The experiments of Virchau and Münster make it probable that it does not belong to the class of tetanic poisons, but that its particular effect is to take away the power of voluntary muscular movement, while the involuntary functions of the heart and intestines still continue. SeeAnn. de Chim. et de Phys., t. xxxix., 1828, p. 24; and Schömberg'sReisen in Britisch Guiana, th. i., s. 441. The frightful poison,tieutéof India, is prepared from a Java species ofstrychnos.[135]According to Lieutenant Azevedo, the latitude of Tabatinga is 4° 14' 30"; longitude, 70° 2' 24"; magnetic variation, 6° 35' 10" N.E.[136]Herndon says (p. 241), "the Tunantíns is about fifty yards broad, and seems deep with a considerable current."[137]Smyth says the town gets its name from the clearness of the water; but Herndon found it muddy, and, to our eyes, it was dark as the Negro.[138]For a discussion of the barometric perturbations on the Amazon, seeAmerican Journal of Sciencefor Sept., 1868.[139]Official returns for 1848 give 3614; Bates (1850) reckons 3000.[140]Darwin met a similar specimen in Banda Oriental: "I asked two men why they did not work. One gravely said the days were too long; the other that he was too poor."[141]It is, however, one of the warmest spots on the river. The average temperature, according to Azevedo and Pinto, is only 79.7°; but the highest point readied on the Amazon in 1862 (87.3°) was at Manáos, and the extraordinary height of 95° has been noted there.[142]Otherwise called, on Brazilian maps, Villa Bella da Imperatriz.[143]Herndon makes Santarem 460 miles from the Negro, and 650 from the sea. Bates calls it 400 miles from the Atlantic, and nearly 50 from Obidos.[144]We are inclined to doubt the assertion of Mansfield that Paraguay is the only country in eastern South America with an industrious peasantry.[145]Brazil yields more than one half the quantity of coffee consumed by the world. That of Ceará is the best.[146]In January, 1868, the current prices were as follows:Refined Sugar,per arroba$3 00Rice"1 40Cacao"3 20Coffee"3 50Farina"75Tapioca"3 00Pure rubber"11 50Plassaba cord"6 50Tobacco"1 50Sarsparilla"11 50The Brazilian arroba is seven pounds heavier than the Spanish.[147]"The traveler, in going from the equator toward the tropics, is less struck by the decrease of the mean annual temperature than by the unequal distribution of heat in different parts of the year."—Humboldt. The great German fixes the mean temperature of the equator at 81.5°; Brewster, at 82.8°; Kirwan, 83.9°; Atkinson, 84.5°.[148]Herndon gives, for the altitude of Cerro Pasco, 13,802 feet; Rivero, 14,279. The lieutenant thus describes his first view from the rough hills surrounding this birthplace of the greatest of rivers: "I can compare it to nothing so fitly as looking from the broken and ragged edges of a volcano into the crater beneath."[149]From Lauricocha to its mouth, the Amazon, following the main curves, is 2740 miles long, as estimated by Bates; in a straight line, 2050; from Pará to the head of the Ucayali, 3000. From north to south the tributaries stretch 1720 miles.[150]Igarapéis sometimes limited to a creek filled with back-water;paranamirimis the proper term for a narrow arm of the main river; andfurosare the diminutive mouths of the tributaries.[151]The Cassiquiari belongs indifferently to both river systems, the level being so complete at one point between them as to obliterate the line of water-shed.—Herschel.[152]In the map of Friar Fritz, published in 1707, the Madeira is one of the most insignificant of the tributaries, and the Ucayali and Putumayo are the largest.[153]We are inclined to hold, with Bates and others, that the Pará River is not, strictly speaking, one of the mouths of the Amazon. "It is made to appear so on many of the maps in common use, because the channels which connect it with the main river are there given much broader than they are in reality, conveying the impression that a large body of water finds an outlet from the main river into the Pará. It is doubtful, however, if there be any considerable stream of water flowing constantly downward through these channels. There is a great contrast in general appearance between the Pará and the main Amazon. In the former the flow of the tide always creates a strong current upward, while in the Amazon the turbid flow of the mighty stream overpowers all tides, and produces a constant downward current. The color of the water is different; that of the Pará being of a dingy orange-brown, while the Amazon has an ochreous or yellowish-clay tint. The forests on their banks have a different aspect. On the Pará, the infinitely diversified trees seem to rise directly out of the water, the forest-frontage is covered with greenery, and wears a placid aspect; while the shores of the main Amazon are encumbered with fallen trunks, and are fringed with a belt of broad-leaved grasses."—Naturalist on the Amazon, i., p. 3-5.[154]The Madeira has often a milky color which it receives from the white clay along its banks.[155]The average temperature of the water in the Lower Amazon is 81°, that of the air being a little less. The temperature of the Huallaga at Yurimaguas was 75° when the air was 88° in the shade; in another experiment both the river and air were 80°. The Marañon at Iquitos was 79° when the air was 90°. At the mouth of the Juruá, Herndon found both water and air 82°. In the tropics the difference between the temperature of the water and air is proportionally less than in high latitudes.[156]The assertion of theEncy. Metropolitana, that "its current has great violence and rapidity, and its depth is unfathomable," must be received with some allowance.[157]The flooded lands are calledgapos.[158]The upper part of the Marañon, from its source to Jaen, is sometimes called the Tunguragua. Solimoens is now seldom heard; but, instead, Middle Amazon, or simply Amazon. The term Alto Amazonas or High Amazon is also applied to all above the Negro. Marañon, says Velasco, derives its name from the circumstance that a soldier, sent by Pizarro to discover the sources of the Rio Piura, having beheld the mighty stream from the neighborhood of Jaen, and, astonished to behold a sea of fresh water, exclaimed,"Hac mare an non?"Orellana's pretended fight with a nation of female warriors gave rise to the Portuguese name of the river, Amazonas (anglicized Amazon), after the mythical women in Cappadocia, who are said to have burnt off their right breasts that they might use the bow and javelin with more skill and force, and hence their name, Αμαξὁνες from α and μαξος. Orellana's story probably grew out of the fact that the men wear long tunics, part the hair in the middle, and, in certain tribes, alone wear ornaments. Some derive the name from the Indian wordamassona, boat-destroyer. The old name, Orellana, after the discoverer, is obsolete, as also the Indian term Parana-tinga, or King of Waters. In ordinary conversation it is designated astheriver, in distinction from its tributaries. "In all parts of the world (says Hamboldt), the largest rivers are called by those who dwell on their banks,The River, without any distinct and peculiar appellation."[159]Professor Agassiz gives the average slope as hardly more than a foot in ten miles, which is based on the farther assertion that the distance from Tabatinga to the sea-shore is more than 2000 miles in a straight line. The distance is not 1600, or exactly 1500, from Pará.—SeeA Journey in Brazil, p. 349.[160]Messrs. Myers and Forbes found this red clay on the Negro, most abundantly near Barcellos; also in small quantities on the Orinoco above Maipures. The officers of the "Morona" assured us that the same formation was traceable far up the Ucayali and Huallaga. This clay from the Amazon, as examined microscopically by Prof. H. James Clark, contains fragments of gasteropod shells and bivalve casts. The red earth of the Pampas, according to Ehrenberg, contains eight fresh-water to one salt-water animalcule.[161]"On the South American coast, where tertiary and supra-tertiary beds have been extensively elevated, I repeatedly noticed that the uppermost beds were formed of coarser materials than the lower; this appears to indicate that, as the sea becomes shallower, the force of the waves or currents increased."—Darwin'sObservations, pt. ii., 131. "Nowhere in the Pampas is there any appearance of much superficial denudation."—Pt. iii., 100.[162]A Journey in Brazil, p. 250, 411, 424. Again, in his Lecture before the Lowell Institute, 1866: "These deposits could not have been made by the sea, nor in a large lake, as they contain no marine nor fresh-water fossils."[163]These interesting fossils are figured and described in theAm. Journal of Conchology.[164]"The whole basin between the Orinoco and the Amazon is composed of granite and gneiss, slightly covered with débris. There is a total absence of sedimentary rocks. The surface is often bare and destitute of soil, the undulations being only a few feet above or below a straight line."—Evan Hopkins, inQuart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. vi.[165]See Darwin on the absence of extensive modern conchiferous deposits in South America,Geological Observations, pt. iii., ch. v.[166]Agassiz calls the average temperature 84°, which, it seems to us, is too high. The mean between the temperatures of Pará, Manáos, and Tabatinga is 80.7°.[167]Buttress roots are not peculiar to any one species, but common to most of the large trees in the crowded forest, where the lateral growth of the roots is made difficult by the multitude of rivals. The Paxiuba, or big-bellied palm, is a fine example.[168]Von Martius, in his great work on the Brazilian Palms, enumerates in all 582 species.[169]The Portuguese and Brazilians call itseringa, or syringe, in which form it is still used extensively, injections forming a great feature in the popular system of cures. The tree mentioned above yields most of the rubber of commerce, and is considered distinct from the species in Guiana,S. elastica;while the rubber from the Upper Amazon and Rio Negro comes from theS. luteaandS. brevifolia. Agassiz puts milk-weed in the same family![170]We await the Professor's examination of his "more than 80,000 specimens" before we give the number of new species.[171]The natives have this notion about the land-tortoise, that by throwing it three times over the head, the liver (the best part) will be enlarged.[172]Dephinus pallidus. Bates observed this species at Villa Nova; we saw it at Coary, 500 miles west; and Herndon found it in the Huallaga.[173]Amazonia is divided into four distinct zoological districts: those of Ecuador, Peru, Guiana, and Brazil; the limits being the Amazon, Madeira, and Negro. The species found on one side of these rivers are seldom found on the other.[174]The honey-bee of Europe was introduced into South America in 1845.[175]Review of Waterton'sWanderings in South America.[176]Large rats abound on the Marnañon, but they are not American.[177]The Tupi word for dog isyaguara, and for wolf,yagua-men, or old dog.[178]Rütimeyer has found a fossil howler in the Swiss Jura—middle cocene.[179]"I think I discover in the Americans (said Humboldt) the descendants of a rare which, early separated from the rest of mankind, has followed up for a series of years a peculiar road in the unfolding of its intellectual faculties and its tendency toward civilization." The South American Indian seems to have a natural aptitude for the arts of civilized life not found in the red men of our continent.[180]We do not infer, however, from this fact alone, that the race is exotic, for the Negroes of Central Africa multiply very slowly.[181]Authors compute in South America from 280 to 700 languages (Abbé Royo said 2000), of which four fifths are composed of idioms radically distinct.[182]Near the sources of this river Castlenau locates the Canamas and Uginas; the former dwarfs, the latter having tails a palm and a half long—a hybrid from an Indian and Barigudo monkey.[183]Query: Is the name Yagua (blood) derived from the practice of coloring the body red?[184]Compare the ancient burial custom on the Andes: "On the decease of the Inca his palaces are abandoned: all his treasures, except those that were employed in his obsequies, his furniture and apparel, were suffered to remain as he left them, and his mansions, save one, were closed up forever."—Prescott.[185]The women circumcise themselves, and a man will not marry a woman who is not circumcised. They perform the singular rite upon arriving at the age of puberty, and have a great feast at the time. Other tribes flog and imprison their daughters when they reach womanhood.[186]The Guayaquil market is well supplied with fish of a fair quality. Usually the fish of warm tropical waters are poor, but the cold "Humboldt current," which passes along the west coast of Ecuador, renders them as edible as those of temperate zones.[187]Calledchancacain Peru. In flavor it is very nearly equal to maple-sugar.[188]First published in theAmerican Journal of Sciencefor September, 1868, to which the reader is referred for other physical observations. The barometric anomaly, noticed particularly on the Lower Amazon, was also observed by Herndon, Castelnau, Chandlers, Spruce, and Wallace.[189]Qu'ichua on Marañon, tiuiút.[190]This Table is taken from theRelatoria da Companhia de Navegaçao e Commercio do Amazonas, and includes only the commerce by the Brazilian steamers and the staple products. The vast amount carried by sailing craft and by Peruvian steamers on the Marañon is unknown to us. The number of passengers transported by the steamers in 1867 was 13,886; receipts from passage, $75,744; from freight, $210,654. In the reduction, the milrey has been taken at 50 cts. U.S. currency, which was the rate very nearly in 1867. The alquiere (alq.)—.988 of a bushel; arr. = arroba of 32 lbs.

[1]Another division, consisting of Messrs. H.M. Myers, R.H. Forbes, and W. Gilbert, of Williams College, proceeded to Venezuela, and after exploring the vicinity of Lake Valencia, the two former traversed the Ilanos to Pao, descended the Apuré and ascended the Orinoco to Yavita, crossed the portage of Pimichin (a low, level tract, nine miles wide, separating the waters of the Orinoco from those of the Amazon), and descended the Negro to Manáos, making a voyage by canoe of over 2000 miles through a little-known but deeply-interesting region. A narrative of this expedition will soon be given to the public.

[2]This eminent ornithologist died in the midst of his examination. Mr. George N. Lawrence, of New York, has identified the remainder, including all the hummers.

[3]We have retained the common orthography of this word, thoughAmazons, used by Bates, is doubtless more correct, as more akin to the Brazilian nameAmazonas.

[4]ThePyrophorus noctilucus, or "cucujo," found also in Mexico and the West Indies. It resembles our large spring-beetle. The light proceeds from two eye-like spots on the thorax and from the segments underneath. It feeds on the sugar-cane. On the Upper Amazon we found theP. clarus,P. pellucens, andP. tuberculatus. At Bahia, on the opposite coast, Darwin foundP. luminosus, the most common luminous insect.

[5]The ancient name wasCulenta.

[6]The continuity of the dry season is broken by a rainy fit commencing a few days after the autumnal equinox, and calledel Cordonazo de San Francisco. "Throughout South America (observes Mr. Spruce) the periodical alternations of dry and rainy weather are laid to the account of those saints whose 'days' coincide nearly with the epochs of change. But if the weather be rainy when it ought to be fair, or if the rains of winter be heavier than ordinary, the blame is invariably laid on the moon."

[7]The turkey-buzzard, the "John Crow" of the West Indies, is not a social bird, though a score are often seen together: each comes and goes by himself.

[8]In 1867 there were exported to Europe of cacao, 197,260 quintals; cotton, 10,247 do.; caucho, 8911 do.; sarsaparilla, 149 do.; orchilla, 10,247 packages; quinine, 5000 do.; tobacco, 2000 do.; coffee, 1611 do.; tamarinds, 65 bbls.; sides of leather, 22,514; hats, 8397.

[9]Cordillera(pronounced Cor-de-yér-ra), literally a long ridge, is usually applied to a longitudinal subdivision of the Andes, as the east and west cordilleras inclosing the valley of Quito;Sierra(from the Spanish for saw or Arabicsehrah, an uncultivated tract) is a jagged spur of the Andes;Cerro, "a hog-backed hill."Paramo(a desert) is the treeless, uninhabited, uncultivated rolling steppes just below the snow-limit.

[10]The mango of Asia is superior in size and flavor to that of America. It is eaten largely in Brazil by negroes and cattle. The cocoa-palm is also of Asiatic origin, and is most abundant in Ceylon. It has a swollen stem when young, but becomes straight and tall when mature. The flowers burst into a long plume of soft, cream-colored blossoms. It is worthy of remembrance that the most beautiful forms of vegetation in the tropics are at the same time most useful to man.

[11]Ferns constitute one sixth of the flora of South America; Spruce counted 140 species within the space of three square miles. Their limits of growth are 500 and 7000 feet above the sea.

[12]The altitude of 7000 feet is the usual limit of the rain-line on the west slope of the Andes. The condensation which produces rain takes place at the equator two or three times higher than in our latitude.

[13]Fromadoub, an Egyptian word still used by the Copts; carried by the Moors to Spain, thence to America; and from America the word has gone to the Sandwich Islands.

[14]This celebrated febrifuge was first taken to Europe about the middle of the seventeenth century, and was named after the Countess of Chinchon, who had been cured of intermittent fever at Lima. Afterward, when Cardinal de Lugo spread the knowledge of the remedy through France, and recommended it to Cardinal Mazarin, it received the name ofJesuits' Bark. The French chemists, Pelletier and Caverton, discovered quinine in 1820.

[15]According to Sir J. Hooker, among the flowers which adorn the slopes of the Himalayas, rhododendrons occupy the most prominent place, and primroses next. There are no orchids, neither red gentians, but blue. Organic life ceases 3000 feet lower than on the Andes; yet it is affirmed that flowering plants occur at the height of 18,460 feet, which is equivalent to the summit of Chimborazo in point of temperature! The polylepis (P. racemosa) is one of theSanguisorbaceæ; in Quichua it isSachaquinoa.

[16]This is shortened in parlance to Tacunga. The full name, according to La Condamine, isLlacta-cunga,llactameaning country, andcunga, neck.

[17]Sometimes calledChisinche.

[18]The son of his Quito love. The name was first writtenAtauhuallpa, meaning fortunate in war; after the fratricide, he was calledAtahuallpa, or game-cock. He was the Boabdil of this occidental Granada. He is called traitor by Peruvian writers, and is not admitted by them into the list of their Incas.

[19]Geografia de la República del Ecuador, por Dr. Villavicencio.This work abounds with erroneous and exaggerated statements, but it is nevertheless a valuable contribution to Ecuadorian literature.

[20]Four Years among Spanish Americans, by Hon. F. Hassaurek: a truthful work, to which we refer the reader for details, especially concerning Ecuadorian life and manners.

[21]The following quotation, however, is true to the letter, and will apply equally well to Guayaquil and to Madrid—the mother of them both: "There is another want still more embarrassing in Quito than the want of hotels—it is the want of water-closets and privies, which are not considered as necessary fixtures of private residences. Men, women, and children, of all ages and colors, may be seen in the middle of the street, in broad daylight, making privies of the most public thoroughfares; and while thus engaged, they will stare into the faces of passers-by with a shamelessness that beggars description."—Hassaurek.

[22]Spanish rhetoric is given to exaggeration. "All their geese are swans." A Peruvian assured us that Cuzco contained 200,000 souls. It is, in fact, about as large as Quito; Gibbon says 20,000.

[23]"I must express my admiration at the natural politeness of almost every Chileno. We met, near Mendoza, a little and very fat negress, riding astride on a mule. She had agoîtreso enormous that it was scarcely possible to avoid gazing at her for a moment; but my two companions almost instantly, by way of apology, made the common salute of the country by taking off their hats. Where would one of the lower or higher classes in Europe have shown such feeling politeness to a poor and miserable object of a degraded race?"—Darwin's Naturalist's Voyage.

[24]The Spanish tongue is the manly son of the Latin, as the Italian is the fair daughter; a language in which, as Charles V. said, "God ought alone to be addressed in prayer." It is spoken in America with an Andalusian rather than Toledan pronunciation.

[25]We are indebted to Mr. Hassaurek for this capital illustration. Every lady, married or unmarried, is addressedSeñorita, or Miss.

[26]"When speaking of these countries, the manner in which they have been brought up by their unnatural parent, Spain, should always be borne in mind. On the whole, perhaps, more credit is due for what has been done, than blame for that which may be deficient."—Darwin's Journal of Researches, p. 158.

[27]The vase is still shown in which Father Rixi brought the first wheat from Europe. It was sown in what is now the San Francisco Plaza, the chief market-place of the city.

[28]"The young ladies of Cuzco are, in general, very beautiful, with regular features, fresh olive complexions, bright eyes full of intelligence, furnished with long lashes, and masses of black hair plaited in two tails."—Markham.

[29]We noticed at Riobamba a custom which formerly prevailed also at Quito. As soon as the guests have finished, and before they have risen, the Indian waiter kneels devoutly down beside the table, and offers thanks in a very solemn, touching tone.

[30]Since this was written, Garcia Moreno has been re-elected to the presidency and the Constitution revised.

[31]Government has more than once paid its debts by repudiation. Congress lately voted to pay only seven per cent. of the claims against the state which are dated prior to a certain year. Among the sufferers is the venerable Dr. Jameson, a distinguished foreigner, who has served this country faithfully for forty years, first as assayer, then as director of the mint, and always by his scientific position.

[32]Asking the late Chilian minister for his view of the rank of the different South American states, he gave us this order: Chile, Brazil, Argentine Republic, Venezuela, New Granada, Central America, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador.

[33]This was a new thing under the sun. Quitonians "bury at dead of night, with lanterns dimly burning." The dirges sung as the procession winds through the streets are extremely plaintive, and are the most touching specimens of Ecuadorian music. The corpse, especially of a child, is often carried in a chair in a sitting posture. The wealthy class wall up their dead in niches on the side of Pichincha, hypothetically till the resurrection, but really for two years, when, unless an additional payment is made, the bones are thrown into a common pit and the coffin burnt. To prevent this, a few who can afford it embalm the deceased. One of the most distinguished citizens of Quito keeps his mummified father at his hacienda, and annually dresses him up in a new suit of clothes!

[34]In the mountain-town of Caxamarca, farther south, there were living in 1792 seven persons aged 114, 117, 121, 131, 132, 141, and 147. One of them, when he died, left behind him eight hundred living descendants to mourn his loss. We confess, however, that we saw very few old persons in Quito. Foreigners outlive the natives, because they live a more regular and temperate life.

[35]The mean annual fall of rain at Quito is 70 inches.""""Charleston is 45.9inches.""""New York is 42.23"""""Albany is 40.93"""""Montreal is 36"""""Madrid is 10."

[36]Gibbon states that the temperature of the blood of a young bull in Cuzco was 100°; air, 57°. At the base of the Andes a similar experiment resulted in 101° for the blood, air 78°. The lieutenant jocosely adds: "The Spaniards have forced the hog so high up on the Andes that he suffers every time he raises his bristles, and dies out of place."—Puna has been attributed to the presence of arsenical vapor.

[37]On the Himalayas are oaks, birches, pines, chestnuts, maples, junipers, and willows; no tree-ferns, bamboos, or palms.

[38]TheAgava Americanaof botanists,cabullaof Ecuadorians,magueyof Venezuelans, andmetlof Mexicans. It is an interesting fact, brought to light by the researches of Carl Neuman, that the Chinese in the fifth century passed over to America by way of the Aleutian Islands, and penetrated as far south as Mexico, which they called the land offusung, that being the celestial name of the aloe. Terzozomoc, the high-priest of the ancient Mexicans, gave aloe leaves, inscribed with sacred characters, to persons who had to journey among the volcanoes, to protect them from injury.

[39]Bollaert derives the name fromchiri(cold) andmuhu(seed).

[40]Dr. Jameson has found the following species ofRubusin the valley of Quito:macrocarpus,stipularis,glabratus,compactus,glaucus,rosæflorus,loxensis,urticæfolius,floribundus, andnubigenus. The common strawberry,Fragaria vesca, grows in the valley, as also theChilensis.

[41]Lieutenant Gilliss praises the potatoes of Peru, but we saw no specimens in Ecuador worthy of note. The "Irish potato" is a native of the Andes. It was unknown to the early Mexicans. It grows as far south on this continent as lat. 50°. The Spaniards carried the potato to Europe from Quito early in the sixteenth century. From Spain it traveled to Italy, Belgium, and Germany. Sir Walter Raleigh imported some from Virginia in 1586, and planted them on his estate near Cork, Ireland. It is raised in Asiatic countries only where Europeans have settled, and for their consumption. It is successfully grown in Australia and New Zealand, where there is no native esculent farinaceous root. Von Tschudi says there is no word in Quichua for potato. It is calledpapaby the Napos.

[42]Journal of Researches, p. 132.

[43]The llama, or "mountain-camel" is a beautiful animal, with long, slender neck and fine legs, a graceful carriage, pointed ears, soft, restless eyes, and quivering lips. It has a gentle disposition; but when angry it will spit, and when hurt will shed tears. We have seen specimens entirely white; but it is generally dark brown, with patches of white. It requires very little food and drink. Since the introduction of horses, asses, and mules, the rearing of llamas has decreased. They are more common in Peru. The llama, guánaco, alpaca, and vicuña were "the four sheep of the Incas:" the first clothing the common people, the second the nobles, the third the royal governors, the fourth the Incas. The price of sheep's wool in Quito was formerly four cents a pound; it is now twelve.

[44]Mr. Gould, however, holds that the difference of coloration is due to the different degrees of exposure to the sun's rays, the brilliantly-colored species being inhabitants of the edges of the forest. Birds from Ucayali, in the centre of the continent, are far more splendid than those which represent them in countries nearer the sea, owing to the clearer atmosphere inland. But it is a fact, at least exceptional to this theory, that the "Cock of the Rock" (Rupicola) on the western side of the Andes (Esmeraldas) is of a richer, deeper color than the same species on the eastern slope (Napo). In keeping with Mr. Gould's theory is the statement by Mr. Bates, that the most gaudy butterflies (the males) flutter in the sunshine.

[45]Herpetodryas carinatus, which we observed also at Guayaquil and on the Marañon. We procured two or three species from the natives, and several new forms from Pallatanga, on the west slope.

[46]Antelopus lævisat Ambato, andA. longirostris, a new species from Antisana Hacienda, were the only frogs noticed. The little fish isPimelodes cyclopum(preñadilla of the Spaniards,imbaof the Indians), the same that was thrown out in the eruptions of Imbabura and Caraguairazo.

[47]The jigger, chigoe, or nigua (Pulex penetransof science) is a microscopic flea, that buries itself under the skin and lays a myriad eggs; the result is a painful tumor. Jiggers are almost confined to sandy places.

[48]"History (says Prescott) furnishes few examples of more absolute authority than such a revolution in the language of an empire at the bidding of a master." The pronunciation of Quichua requires a harsh, explosive utterance. Gibbon says the sound of it to him resembled Welsh or Irish; that of Aymará, English. The lettersb,d,f,g, andoare wanting in the ancient tongue of Quito;pwas afterward changed tob,ttod,vtof,ctog, andutoo: thus Chim-pu-razu is now Chimborazo. A few words bear a striking analogy to corresponding Sanscrit words; asYnti, the Inca for sun, andIndra, the Hindoo god of the heavens.

[49]Their favorite musical instrument is therondador, a number of reeds of different lengths tied in a row. The "plaintive national songs" which Markham heard at Cuzco are not sung in Ecuador.

[50]At Paita, the most western point of South America, there is a raised beach three hundred feet high. The basal slate and sandstone rocks, dipping S. of E., are covered by conglomerate, sand, and a gypseous formation, containing shells of living species. Additional to those described by D'Orbigny we found hereCerithium læviuscula,Ostrea gallus, andAmpullina Ortoni, as determined by W.M. Gabb, Esq., of Philadelphia. Darwin found shells in Chile 1300 feet above the sea, covered with marine mud. President Loomis, of Lewisburg University, Pa., informs the writer, that in 1853, after nearly a day's ride from Iquique, he came to a former sea-beach. "It furnished abundant specimens ofPatellæand other shells, still perfect, and identical with others that I had that morning obtained at Iquique with the living animal inhabiting them." This beach is elevated 2500 feet above the Pacific. The same observer says that near Potosi there is one uninterrupted mass of lava, having a columnar structure, not less than one hundred miles in length, fifty miles wide, and eight hundred feet thick. It overlies a bed of saliferous sandstone which has been worked for salt. Fifty feet within a mine, and in the undisturbed rock which forms its roof, the doctor found fragments of dicotyledonous trees with the bark on, undecomposed, uncharred, and fibrous.

[51]The name Andes is often derived fromanta, an old Peruvian word signifying metal. But Humboldt says: "There are no means of interpreting it by connecting it with any signification or idea; if such connection exist, it is buried in the obscurity of the past." According to Col. Tod, the northern Hindoos apply the name Andes to the Himalayan Mountains.

[52]On this point see Chapter XVII.

[53]"The interior plateau of Brazil (says Dr. Lund) is composed of horizontal strata of the transition period, which are nowhere covered with the secondary or tertiary formations." The highest point in Brazil is 5755 feet. Darwin speaks of "some ancient submarine volcanic rocks (in the province of La Plata) worth mentioning, from their rarity on this eastern side of the continent." With the exception of the coast of Venezuela, the eastern system is little exposed to earthquakes.

[54]These three plains constitute four fifths of all South America east of the Andes. The west slope of the Ecuadorian Andes is about 275 feet per mile; on the east it is 125 feet.

[55]There is, however, a striking coincidence between the mountain and river systems of the northern and southern continents of this hemisphere. Thus,The Andes represent the Rocky Mountains,"Highland of Guiana represent the Canadian Mountains.""Brazil"Appalachian""Amazon"Saskatchewan."La Plata"Mississippi."Orinoco"Mackenzie.

[55]There is, however, a striking coincidence between the mountain and river systems of the northern and southern continents of this hemisphere. Thus,

[56]The width of the chain south of the equator varies with that of the continent.

[57]"No mountains which I have seen in Hungary, Saxony, or the Pyrenees are as irregular as the Andes, or broken into such alternate substances, manifesting such prodigious revolutions of nature."—Helms. "More sublime than the Alps by theirensemble, the Andes lack those curious and charming details of which Nature has been so lavish in the old continent."—Holinski.

[58]This lake is the largest fresh-water accumulation in South America. It has diminished within the historic period. Its surface is 12,795 feet above the Pacific, or higher than the highest peaks of the Pyrenees.

[59]This is the loftiest summit of the Andes in the northern hemisphere, being 18,200 feet. It is also remarkable for being situated farther from the sea (120 miles) than any other active volcano.

[60]"As a general rule, whenever the mass of mountains rises much above the limit of perpetual snow, the primitive rocks disappear, and the summits are trachyte or trappean porphyry."—Humboldt. In general, "the great Cordilleras are formed of innumerable varieties of granites, gneiss, schists, hornblende, chloritic slates, porphyries, etc., and these rocks alternate with each other in meridional bands, which in the ridges frequently present the appearance of a radiated or fan-shaped structure, and under the plains are more or less vertical."—Evan Hopkins, F.G.S.

[61]Von Tschudi makes the incorrect statement that "throughout the whole extent of South America there is not a single instance of the Western Cordillera being intersected by a river." Witness the Esmeraldas.

[62]It is a singular fact that true trachyte, pumice, and obsidian are wanting in the volcanic Galápagos Islands, only 700 miles west of Pichincha.

[63]As many of the crystals are partly fused, or have round angles, the porphyries were probably formed by the melting of a crystalline rock, the base becoming fused into a homogeneous material, while the less fusible crystals remain imbedded.—Dr. Hunt.

[64]In the Galápagos volcanoes the south wall is lowest, while the craters in Mexico and Sandwich Islands are lowest on the northeast.

[65]The altitudes of the most important Ecuadorian volcanoes are:Western Chain.Eastern Chain.Chimborazo, 21,420 feet (Humboldt).Cayambi, 19,648 feet (Humboldt); 19,358 (Wisse).Caraguairazo, 19,183 feet (Humboldt). It is variously estimated from 15,673 feetto 19,720 feet; 18,000 feet is not far from the truth.Antisana, 19,148 feet (Humboldt); 19,279 (Wisse).Cotopaxi, 18,880 feet (Humboldt); 18,862 (Wisse).Iliniza, 17,370 feet (Wisse); 16,300 (Hall).Altar, 17,400 feet.Cotocachí, 16,440 feet (Humboldt); 16,409 (Wisse).Sangai, 17,120 feet (Wisse).Pichincha, 15,922 feet (Humboldt); 15,827 (Orton).Tunguragua, 16,579 feet (Humboldt).Sincholagua, 16,434 feet (Humboldt).

[65]The altitudes of the most important Ecuadorian volcanoes are:

[66]The snow limit at the equator is 15,800 feet. No living creature, save the condor, passes this limit; naked rocks, fogs, and eternal snows mark the reign of uninterrupted solitude. The following is the approximate limit of perpetual snow in different latitudes:0°5,800feet.40°8,300feet.27°18,800"54°3,700"33°12,780"70°3,300"The limit appears to descend more rapidly going south of the equator than in going north.

The limit appears to descend more rapidly going south of the equator than in going north.

[67]We traveled over a portion of this ancient road in going from Riobamba to Cajabamba. It is well paved with cut blocks of dark porphyry. It is not graded, but partakes of the irregularity of the country. Designed, not for carriages, but for troops and llamas, there are steps when the ascent is steep.

[68]Grand as the Andes are, how insignificant in a general view! How slightly they cause our globe to differ from a perfect sphere! Cotopaxi constitutes only1/1100of the earth's radius; and on a globe six feet in diameter, Chimborazo would be represented by a grain of sand less than1/20of an inch in thickness.

[69]But Chimborazo is steeper than the Alp-king; and steepness is a quality more quickly appreciated than mere massiveness. "Mont Blanc (says a writer inFrazer's Magazine) is scarcely admired, because he is built with a certain regard to stability; but the apparently reckless architecture of the Matterhorn brings the traveler fairly on his knees, with a respect akin to that felt for the leaning tower of Pisa, or the soaring pinnacles of Antwerp."

[70]"White Mountain" is the natural and almost uniform name of the highest mountains in all countries: thus Himalaya, Mont Blanc, Hocmus, Sierra Nevada, Ben Nevis, Snowdon, Lebanon, White Mountains of United States, Chimborazo, and Illimani.

[71]Humboldt's statement that the condor flies higher than Chimborazo has been questioned; but we have seen numbers hovering at least a thousand feet above the summit of Pichincha. Baron Müller, in his ascent of Orizaba, saw two falcons flying at the height of full 18,000 feet; Dr. Hooker found crows and ravens on the Himalayas at 16,500 feet; and flocks of wild geese are said to fly over the peak of Kintschinghow, 22,756 feet.

[72]Mount Everest is 29,000 feet, and Aconcagua 23,200. Schlagintweit enumerates thirteen Himalayan summits over 25,000 feet, and forty-six above 20,000. We have little confidence in the estimates of the Bolivian mountains. Chimborazo has nearly the same latitude and altitude as the loftiest peak in Africa, Kilima Njaro.

[73]Humboldt ascribes the absence of glaciers in the Andes to the extreme steepness of the sides, and the excessive dryness of the air. Dr. Loomis, above quoted, mentions indications of glacial action—moraines, and polished and striated rocks—on the crest of the Cordillera, between Peru and Bolivia, lat. 21° S.

[74]Pichincha, in the Inca language, signifies "the boiling mountain;" Rucu means old; Guagua, young; and Cundur-guachana, the condor's nest.

[75]More accurately, 2527 feet; Wisse and Moreno made it 2460.

[76]The snow on the top of Mont Blanc is like dry dust; in Lapland, in open places, it consists of hexagonal crystals, and is called by the inhabitants "sand-snow." The French and Spanish mathematicians, Bouguer, La Condamine, and Ulloa, in their story of ascending Pichincha, give a long and dreadful account of their sufferings from cold and rarefied air: "whilst eating, every one was obliged to keep his plate over a chafing-dish of coals, to prevent his food from freezing." The traveler nowadays finds only a chilling wind. This rise of temperature, coupled with the fact that La Condamine (1745), Humboldt (1802), Boussingault (1831), and Wisse (1863) give to Quito a decreasing altitude, inclines us to believe, with Boussingault, that the Andes are sinking. Since the activity of the volcano in 1868, the summit has been so warm that the snow has totally disappeared. Ice-cream has in consequence risen in price in Quito, as snow must be brought from Sincholagua, four days' journey.

[77]Fromimba(fish), andbura, to produce. Its name can not be older than 1691, unless the mountain made similar eruptions before. It has frequently ejected water.

[78]The culminating point of Guamani isSara-urcu, a volcano which threw out a vast quantity of ashes in 1843 and 1856.

[79]M. d'Abbadie professes to have visited a village in Abyssinia (Arquiage) which is 12,450 feet above the sea. Potosi stands 13,500 feet.

[80]This agrees with Humboldt's calculation that a difference of elevation of 278 feet produces the same effect on the annual temperature as a change of one degree of latitude. According to the experiments of Captain Pullen, the minimum temperature of the great depths of the ocean 35°, and it commences soon after passing 12,000 feet.

[81]The great dépôts of cattle in Ecuador are at the two extremes of elevation, the lowlands of St. Elena and the highlands of Antisana. On the slope of Cayambi is another extensive cattle estate.

[82]The grebe is considered by Messrs. Cassin and Lawrence to be thePodiceps occipitalis, Lisson (P. calipareus et Chilensisof Garnot), which occurs in large flocks on the coast of Chile and in the Straits of Magellan. It is quite different from theP. micropterusof Lake Titicaca. At Morococha, Peru, 15,600 feet above the sea, Herndon found snipes and ducks.

[83]In Brigham'sNotes on the Volcanic Phenomena of the Hawaiian Islands, this volcano is put down as active, but there has been no eruption in the memory of man. Its lithology is represented in our collection by porous, gray, granular trachyte, fine-grained, compact trachyte, and dark porphyroid trachyte. The derivation of Sincholagua is unknown, Rumiñagui means the face of a rock, Cotopaxi, Sincholagua, and Rumiñagui, and Cotopaxi, Pichincha, and Guamani, form equilateral triangles.

[84]MM. Zurcher and Margalli make the slope 55°! and Guzman, 69° 30'!! The slope of Mauna Loa is 6° 30'; of Etna, 9°; of Teneriffe, 12° 30'; of Vesuvius, 35°. While cinder-cones may have an angle of 40°, lava-cones seldom exceed 10°.

[85]Even this has now (August, 1869) ceased, save an occasional grumble, and the Tacungans are trembling with fear of another eruption.

[86]Compare the following sections:Cotopaxi(near Tiupullo).Vesuvius(at Pompeii).Soil1ft.0in.Soil3ft.0in.Fine yellow pumice5"0"Brown incoherent tuff1"6"Compact black ashes, with seams of pumice10"0"Small scoriæ and white lapilli0"3"Fine yellow pumice1"6"Brown earthy tuff4"9"Compact black ashes12"0"Whitish lapilli0"1"Fine yellow pumice2"0"Gray solid tuff0"3"Compact black ashes, with seams of pumice.Pumice and white lapilli0"3"

[87]Immediately south of Cotopaxi, the Cordillera consists of paramos sown with lakes and morasses, and is rarely covered with snow. Llanganati is probably fromllánga, to touch: they touch the sources of nearly all the Ecuadorian rivers.

[88]The story is doubtless due to the fact that the eastern streams, which issue from the foot of this cordillera, are auriferous.

[89]From Tungúri, the ankle-joint, alluding to its apical angle. It is a little steeper than Cotopaxi, having a slope of 38°.

[90]Spruce asserts that he saw smoke issuing from the western edge in 1857; and Dr. Terry says that in 1832 smoke ascended almost always from the summit. Dr. Taylor, of Riobamba, informs the writer that smoke is now almost constantly visible. The characteristic rock is a black vitreous trachyte resembling pitchstone, but anhydrous.

[91]La Condamine (1742) adds "sulphur and bitumen."

[92]Compare the table-lands in the Old World:Thibet11,500feet.South Africa6,000"Mysore (India)2,880"Spain2,240"Bavaria1,770"

[93]The altitude of Loja is 6768 feet; of Cuenca, 8640 feet.

[94]According to Villavicencio,Rio(orRie) is Quichua for road;bambais plain.

[95]Atuntaqui received its name from the big drum which was kept here in the days of Huayna-Capac, to give the war-signal.

[96]Professor Quinby, of the University of Rochester, has, at our request, calculated the position of the moon at the late earthquake: "August 16th, 1868, 1A.M., the moon was on meridian 137° 21' east of that of Quito, or 42° 30' past the lower meridian of Quito, assuming the longitude of Quito west of Greenwich to be 79°, which it is very nearly. This is but little after the vertex of the tidal wave should have passed the meridian of Quito, on the supposition that the interior of the earth is a liquid mass. The age of the moon at that time was 27.36 days,i.e., it was only about two days before new moon." At the time of the earthquake, 8A.M., March 22, 1859, the moon was on meridian 25° 48' east of that of Quito, and was 17.6 days old. Shocks have since occurred, March 20th at 3A.M., and April 10th at 8A.M., 1869.

[97]The boundary-line between Ecuador and Peru is about as indefinite as the eastern limit of Bolivia, Brazilians claiming "as far west as the cattle of the empire roam."

[98]Quito might be made more accessible on the Atlantic than on the Pacific side. But Ecuadorians dote on Guayaquil, and refuse to connect themselves directly with the great nations of the East. We believe there is a glorious future for Quito, when it will once more become a city of palaces. But it will not come until a road through the wilderness and a steamer on the Napo open a short communication with the wealth of Amazonia and the enterprise of Europe.

[99]All savages appear to possess to an uncommon degree the power of mimicry.—Darwin.

[100]Gibbon observes of his Indian paddlers on the Marmoré: "They talk very little; they silently pull along as though they were sleeping, but their eyes are wandering all the time in every direction."

[101]Some of these feminines, however, have a method of retaliation which happily does not exist further north. They render their husbands idiotic by giving them an infusion offloripondio, and then choose another consort. We saw a sad example of this near Riobamba, and heard of one husband who, after being thus treated, unconsciously served his wife and her new man like a slave.Floripondiois the seed of theDatura sanguinea, which is allied to the poisonousstramoniumused by the priests of Apollo at Delphi to produce their frantic ravings.

[102]Jacquinia armillaris, an evergreen bush. The Indians on the Tapajos use a poisonous liana calledtimbó(Paullinia pinnata).

[103]It is there calledzarabatanaorgravatana; by the Peruvianspucuna. It corresponds to thesumpitanof Borneo. It is difficult to recognize the use of the blow-gun, but the natives will kill at the distance of 150 feet. One which we brought home sent the slender arrow through the panel of a door.

[104]This thorny palm is calledtucumin Brazil. The fibres of the budding top are used. A woman will twist a hundred yards of twine a day, and make a living by selling hammocks for twenty-five cents a piece.

[105]Bates (ii., 132) speaks of a similar custom among the ancient Mundurucus: "They used to sever the head with knives made of broad bamboo, and then, after taking out the brain and fleshy parts, soak it in bitter vegetable oils, and expose it several days over the smoke of a fire, or in the sun."

[106]A like custom existed among some Brazilian and Guiana tribes. It also prevailed to some extent among the ancient Cantabrians and Corsicans, the Congos and Tartars, and in the Southern French provinces.

[107]The scarcity of game is well illustrated by the fate of Pizarro and his comrades. In returning from their expedition to the Napo country, they nearly perished with hunger, living on lizards, dogs, horses, saddles, sword-belts, etc., and reached Quito looking more like spectres than men.

[108]"Jerked beef," as it is called in South America, consists of thin strips cut off the carcass after skinning and dried in the sun. The butchers do not distinguish between sirloin and round.

[109]This is the rum of the Andes, corresponding to thecashaçaof Brazil. It is distilled from sugar-cane. When double-distilled and flavored with anise, it is calledanisado.

[110]The following is a copy of the President's order:REPUBLICA DEL ECUADORMinisteria de Estado en el Despacho del Interior.Quito á 18 de Octubre, de 1807.APERTORIA.A las autoridades del transito hasta el Napo, i á los demas empleados civiles i militares de la provincia del Oriente:El Sor. James Orton, ciudadano de los EE. UU. de América, profesor de la Universidad de Rochester en Nueva-York, i jefe de una comision cientifica del Instituto de Smithsonian de Washington, vá á la provincia de Oriente con el objeto de esplorarla en cumplimiento de su encargo. S.E. el Presidenta de la República ordena á U.U. presten al espresado Sor. Orton i su comitiva cuantas consideraciones merecen sus personas, i los ausilios i co-operacion que necesiten para verificar su viaje i hacer sus estudios i observaciones.Dios gue. á U.U.R. Carvajal.

[110]The following is a copy of the President's order:

REPUBLICA DEL ECUADORMinisteria de Estado en el Despacho del Interior.Quito á 18 de Octubre, de 1807.APERTORIA.A las autoridades del transito hasta el Napo, i á los demas empleados civiles i militares de la provincia del Oriente:El Sor. James Orton, ciudadano de los EE. UU. de América, profesor de la Universidad de Rochester en Nueva-York, i jefe de una comision cientifica del Instituto de Smithsonian de Washington, vá á la provincia de Oriente con el objeto de esplorarla en cumplimiento de su encargo. S.E. el Presidenta de la República ordena á U.U. presten al espresado Sor. Orton i su comitiva cuantas consideraciones merecen sus personas, i los ausilios i co-operacion que necesiten para verificar su viaje i hacer sus estudios i observaciones.Dios gue. á U.U.R. Carvajal.

REPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR

Ministeria de Estado en el Despacho del Interior.Quito á 18 de Octubre, de 1807.APERTORIA.

A las autoridades del transito hasta el Napo, i á los demas empleados civiles i militares de la provincia del Oriente:

El Sor. James Orton, ciudadano de los EE. UU. de América, profesor de la Universidad de Rochester en Nueva-York, i jefe de una comision cientifica del Instituto de Smithsonian de Washington, vá á la provincia de Oriente con el objeto de esplorarla en cumplimiento de su encargo. S.E. el Presidenta de la República ordena á U.U. presten al espresado Sor. Orton i su comitiva cuantas consideraciones merecen sus personas, i los ausilios i co-operacion que necesiten para verificar su viaje i hacer sus estudios i observaciones.

Dios gue. á U.U.

R. Carvajal.

[111]The king of this fabulous land was said to wear a magnificent attire fragrant with a costly gum, and sprinkled with gold dust. His palace was of porphyry and alabaster, and his throne of ivory.

[112]We give below the autograph of this wisest man in all the Oriente: "Recibio del Señor James Orton la suma de centos (100) pesos por vente (20) peones hasta Archidona.Autograph of an Indian"Papallacta, 4 Nov., 1867."

[112]We give below the autograph of this wisest man in all the Oriente: "Recibio del Señor James Orton la suma de centos (100) pesos por vente (20) peones hasta Archidona.

Autograph of an Indian

"Papallacta, 4 Nov., 1867."

[113]"Distance is frequently estimated by the time that a man will occupy in taking a chew of coca," or 37½ minutes.—Herndon.

[114]Humboldt speaks of this as an active volcano, "from which detonations are heard almost daily." We heard nothing. It is possible that he meant Guamani.

[115]The Chasuta Indians, Herndon says, eat musquitoes that they catch on their bodies with the idea of restoring the blood which the insect has abstracted.

[116]Sometimes calledyuca dulce, or sweet yuca, to distinguish it from theyuca brava, or wild yuca, the mandioca of the Amazon, from which farina is made. The yuca is the beet-like root of a little tree about ten feet high. It is a good substitute for potatoes and bread.

[117]Vanilla belongs to the orchid family, and is the only member which possesses any economical value. It is a graceful climber and has a pretty star-like flower.

[118]In Peru, the liquor made from yuca is calledmasato.

[119]Rock-salt is found on both sides of the Andes. "The general character of the geology of these countries would rather lead to the opinion that its origin is in some way connected with volcanic heat at the bottom of the sea."—Darwin'sObservations, pt. iii., p. 235.

[120]"The Napo (Herndon was told) is very full of sand-banks, and twenty days from its mouth (or near the confluence of the Curaray) the men have to get overboard and drag the canoes!"—Report, p. 229.

[121]The chief difficulty throughout the Upper Amazon is in getting the Indians to concentrate along the bank. But honorable dealing would accomplish this in time.

[122]Its actual source is the Rio del Valle, which runs northward through the Valle Vicioso. Its longest tributary, the Curaray, rises only a few miles to the south in the Cordillera de los Mulatos. The two rivers run side by side 4° of longitude before meeting. Coca, the northern branch, originates in the flanks of Cayambi. The Napo and its branches are represented incorrectly in every map we have examined. The Aguarico is confounded with the Santa Maria and made too long, and the Curaray is represented too far above the mouth of the Napo. There are no settlements between Coca and Camindo.

[123]From specimens of sand which we obtained at different points in descending the river, we find that at Coca it contains 17.5 per cent. of pure quartz grains, the rest being colored dark with augite: at the mouth of the Napo there is 50 per cent. of pure quartz, the other half being light-colored and feldspathic.

[124]Monkeys form an article of food throughout tropical America. The meat is tough, but keeps longer than any other in that climate. The Indians told Gibbon that "the tail is the most delicate part when the hair is properly singed."

[125]Thetrapicheor sugar-mill of the Andes is a rude affair. The cane is pressed between cogged wooden cylinders worked by bullocks, and the juice is received in troughs made of hollowed logs.

[126]Bates says the Mundurucus express surprise by making a clicking sound with their teeth, and Darwin observes that the Fuegians have the habit of making a chuckling noise when pleased.

[127]The like perfect equality exists among the Fuegian tribes. "A piece of cloth given to one is torn into shreds and distributed, and no one individual becomes richer than another."—Darwin.

[128]Some orchid is in flower all the year round. The finest species is theodontoglossum, having long, chocolate-colored petals, margined with yellow. "Such is their number and variety (wrote Humboldt) that the entire life of a painter would be too short to delineate all the magnificent Orchideæ which adorn the recesses of the deep valleys of the Peruvian Andes." For many curious facts respecting the structure of these flowers, see Darwin'sFertilization of Orchids.

[129]In the Quichua of Quito the peccari is calledsaino.

[130]The Uaupes on the Napo, according to Wallace, will not eat peccari meat. "Meat putrifies in this climate (of the Tapajos) in less than twenty-four hours, and salting is of no use unless the pieces are cut in thin slices and dried immediately in the sun."—Bates.

[131]The specific name was strangely given for its habit, when young, of darting upon mice. Anaconda is a Ceylonese word.

[132]Sand-flies are called by the nativesmusquitoes, and what we call musquitoes they callsancudos.

[133]Herndon makes the mouth of the Napo 150 yards broad, and the soundings six or seven fathoms. This is not a fair representation; for the Napo, like all the other tributaries, empties its waters by several mouths. At Camindo, five miles above the confluence, the Napo is certainly a mile wide.

[134]Urarí is mentioned by Raleigh. Humboldt was the first to take any considerable quantity to Europe. The experiments of Virchau and Münster make it probable that it does not belong to the class of tetanic poisons, but that its particular effect is to take away the power of voluntary muscular movement, while the involuntary functions of the heart and intestines still continue. SeeAnn. de Chim. et de Phys., t. xxxix., 1828, p. 24; and Schömberg'sReisen in Britisch Guiana, th. i., s. 441. The frightful poison,tieutéof India, is prepared from a Java species ofstrychnos.

[135]According to Lieutenant Azevedo, the latitude of Tabatinga is 4° 14' 30"; longitude, 70° 2' 24"; magnetic variation, 6° 35' 10" N.E.

[136]Herndon says (p. 241), "the Tunantíns is about fifty yards broad, and seems deep with a considerable current."

[137]Smyth says the town gets its name from the clearness of the water; but Herndon found it muddy, and, to our eyes, it was dark as the Negro.

[138]For a discussion of the barometric perturbations on the Amazon, seeAmerican Journal of Sciencefor Sept., 1868.

[139]Official returns for 1848 give 3614; Bates (1850) reckons 3000.

[140]Darwin met a similar specimen in Banda Oriental: "I asked two men why they did not work. One gravely said the days were too long; the other that he was too poor."

[141]It is, however, one of the warmest spots on the river. The average temperature, according to Azevedo and Pinto, is only 79.7°; but the highest point readied on the Amazon in 1862 (87.3°) was at Manáos, and the extraordinary height of 95° has been noted there.

[142]Otherwise called, on Brazilian maps, Villa Bella da Imperatriz.

[143]Herndon makes Santarem 460 miles from the Negro, and 650 from the sea. Bates calls it 400 miles from the Atlantic, and nearly 50 from Obidos.

[144]We are inclined to doubt the assertion of Mansfield that Paraguay is the only country in eastern South America with an industrious peasantry.

[145]Brazil yields more than one half the quantity of coffee consumed by the world. That of Ceará is the best.

[146]In January, 1868, the current prices were as follows:Refined Sugar,per arroba$3 00Rice"1 40Cacao"3 20Coffee"3 50Farina"75Tapioca"3 00Pure rubber"11 50Plassaba cord"6 50Tobacco"1 50Sarsparilla"11 50The Brazilian arroba is seven pounds heavier than the Spanish.

[147]"The traveler, in going from the equator toward the tropics, is less struck by the decrease of the mean annual temperature than by the unequal distribution of heat in different parts of the year."—Humboldt. The great German fixes the mean temperature of the equator at 81.5°; Brewster, at 82.8°; Kirwan, 83.9°; Atkinson, 84.5°.

[148]Herndon gives, for the altitude of Cerro Pasco, 13,802 feet; Rivero, 14,279. The lieutenant thus describes his first view from the rough hills surrounding this birthplace of the greatest of rivers: "I can compare it to nothing so fitly as looking from the broken and ragged edges of a volcano into the crater beneath."

[149]From Lauricocha to its mouth, the Amazon, following the main curves, is 2740 miles long, as estimated by Bates; in a straight line, 2050; from Pará to the head of the Ucayali, 3000. From north to south the tributaries stretch 1720 miles.

[150]Igarapéis sometimes limited to a creek filled with back-water;paranamirimis the proper term for a narrow arm of the main river; andfurosare the diminutive mouths of the tributaries.

[151]The Cassiquiari belongs indifferently to both river systems, the level being so complete at one point between them as to obliterate the line of water-shed.—Herschel.

[152]In the map of Friar Fritz, published in 1707, the Madeira is one of the most insignificant of the tributaries, and the Ucayali and Putumayo are the largest.

[153]We are inclined to hold, with Bates and others, that the Pará River is not, strictly speaking, one of the mouths of the Amazon. "It is made to appear so on many of the maps in common use, because the channels which connect it with the main river are there given much broader than they are in reality, conveying the impression that a large body of water finds an outlet from the main river into the Pará. It is doubtful, however, if there be any considerable stream of water flowing constantly downward through these channels. There is a great contrast in general appearance between the Pará and the main Amazon. In the former the flow of the tide always creates a strong current upward, while in the Amazon the turbid flow of the mighty stream overpowers all tides, and produces a constant downward current. The color of the water is different; that of the Pará being of a dingy orange-brown, while the Amazon has an ochreous or yellowish-clay tint. The forests on their banks have a different aspect. On the Pará, the infinitely diversified trees seem to rise directly out of the water, the forest-frontage is covered with greenery, and wears a placid aspect; while the shores of the main Amazon are encumbered with fallen trunks, and are fringed with a belt of broad-leaved grasses."—Naturalist on the Amazon, i., p. 3-5.

[154]The Madeira has often a milky color which it receives from the white clay along its banks.

[155]The average temperature of the water in the Lower Amazon is 81°, that of the air being a little less. The temperature of the Huallaga at Yurimaguas was 75° when the air was 88° in the shade; in another experiment both the river and air were 80°. The Marañon at Iquitos was 79° when the air was 90°. At the mouth of the Juruá, Herndon found both water and air 82°. In the tropics the difference between the temperature of the water and air is proportionally less than in high latitudes.

[156]The assertion of theEncy. Metropolitana, that "its current has great violence and rapidity, and its depth is unfathomable," must be received with some allowance.

[157]The flooded lands are calledgapos.

[158]The upper part of the Marañon, from its source to Jaen, is sometimes called the Tunguragua. Solimoens is now seldom heard; but, instead, Middle Amazon, or simply Amazon. The term Alto Amazonas or High Amazon is also applied to all above the Negro. Marañon, says Velasco, derives its name from the circumstance that a soldier, sent by Pizarro to discover the sources of the Rio Piura, having beheld the mighty stream from the neighborhood of Jaen, and, astonished to behold a sea of fresh water, exclaimed,"Hac mare an non?"Orellana's pretended fight with a nation of female warriors gave rise to the Portuguese name of the river, Amazonas (anglicized Amazon), after the mythical women in Cappadocia, who are said to have burnt off their right breasts that they might use the bow and javelin with more skill and force, and hence their name, Αμαξὁνες from α and μαξος. Orellana's story probably grew out of the fact that the men wear long tunics, part the hair in the middle, and, in certain tribes, alone wear ornaments. Some derive the name from the Indian wordamassona, boat-destroyer. The old name, Orellana, after the discoverer, is obsolete, as also the Indian term Parana-tinga, or King of Waters. In ordinary conversation it is designated astheriver, in distinction from its tributaries. "In all parts of the world (says Hamboldt), the largest rivers are called by those who dwell on their banks,The River, without any distinct and peculiar appellation."

[159]Professor Agassiz gives the average slope as hardly more than a foot in ten miles, which is based on the farther assertion that the distance from Tabatinga to the sea-shore is more than 2000 miles in a straight line. The distance is not 1600, or exactly 1500, from Pará.—SeeA Journey in Brazil, p. 349.

[160]Messrs. Myers and Forbes found this red clay on the Negro, most abundantly near Barcellos; also in small quantities on the Orinoco above Maipures. The officers of the "Morona" assured us that the same formation was traceable far up the Ucayali and Huallaga. This clay from the Amazon, as examined microscopically by Prof. H. James Clark, contains fragments of gasteropod shells and bivalve casts. The red earth of the Pampas, according to Ehrenberg, contains eight fresh-water to one salt-water animalcule.

[161]"On the South American coast, where tertiary and supra-tertiary beds have been extensively elevated, I repeatedly noticed that the uppermost beds were formed of coarser materials than the lower; this appears to indicate that, as the sea becomes shallower, the force of the waves or currents increased."—Darwin'sObservations, pt. ii., 131. "Nowhere in the Pampas is there any appearance of much superficial denudation."—Pt. iii., 100.

[162]A Journey in Brazil, p. 250, 411, 424. Again, in his Lecture before the Lowell Institute, 1866: "These deposits could not have been made by the sea, nor in a large lake, as they contain no marine nor fresh-water fossils."

[163]These interesting fossils are figured and described in theAm. Journal of Conchology.

[164]"The whole basin between the Orinoco and the Amazon is composed of granite and gneiss, slightly covered with débris. There is a total absence of sedimentary rocks. The surface is often bare and destitute of soil, the undulations being only a few feet above or below a straight line."—Evan Hopkins, inQuart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. vi.

[165]See Darwin on the absence of extensive modern conchiferous deposits in South America,Geological Observations, pt. iii., ch. v.

[166]Agassiz calls the average temperature 84°, which, it seems to us, is too high. The mean between the temperatures of Pará, Manáos, and Tabatinga is 80.7°.

[167]Buttress roots are not peculiar to any one species, but common to most of the large trees in the crowded forest, where the lateral growth of the roots is made difficult by the multitude of rivals. The Paxiuba, or big-bellied palm, is a fine example.

[168]Von Martius, in his great work on the Brazilian Palms, enumerates in all 582 species.

[169]The Portuguese and Brazilians call itseringa, or syringe, in which form it is still used extensively, injections forming a great feature in the popular system of cures. The tree mentioned above yields most of the rubber of commerce, and is considered distinct from the species in Guiana,S. elastica;while the rubber from the Upper Amazon and Rio Negro comes from theS. luteaandS. brevifolia. Agassiz puts milk-weed in the same family!

[170]We await the Professor's examination of his "more than 80,000 specimens" before we give the number of new species.

[171]The natives have this notion about the land-tortoise, that by throwing it three times over the head, the liver (the best part) will be enlarged.

[172]Dephinus pallidus. Bates observed this species at Villa Nova; we saw it at Coary, 500 miles west; and Herndon found it in the Huallaga.

[173]Amazonia is divided into four distinct zoological districts: those of Ecuador, Peru, Guiana, and Brazil; the limits being the Amazon, Madeira, and Negro. The species found on one side of these rivers are seldom found on the other.

[174]The honey-bee of Europe was introduced into South America in 1845.

[175]Review of Waterton'sWanderings in South America.

[176]Large rats abound on the Marnañon, but they are not American.

[177]The Tupi word for dog isyaguara, and for wolf,yagua-men, or old dog.

[178]Rütimeyer has found a fossil howler in the Swiss Jura—middle cocene.

[179]"I think I discover in the Americans (said Humboldt) the descendants of a rare which, early separated from the rest of mankind, has followed up for a series of years a peculiar road in the unfolding of its intellectual faculties and its tendency toward civilization." The South American Indian seems to have a natural aptitude for the arts of civilized life not found in the red men of our continent.

[180]We do not infer, however, from this fact alone, that the race is exotic, for the Negroes of Central Africa multiply very slowly.

[181]Authors compute in South America from 280 to 700 languages (Abbé Royo said 2000), of which four fifths are composed of idioms radically distinct.

[182]Near the sources of this river Castlenau locates the Canamas and Uginas; the former dwarfs, the latter having tails a palm and a half long—a hybrid from an Indian and Barigudo monkey.

[183]Query: Is the name Yagua (blood) derived from the practice of coloring the body red?

[184]Compare the ancient burial custom on the Andes: "On the decease of the Inca his palaces are abandoned: all his treasures, except those that were employed in his obsequies, his furniture and apparel, were suffered to remain as he left them, and his mansions, save one, were closed up forever."—Prescott.

[185]The women circumcise themselves, and a man will not marry a woman who is not circumcised. They perform the singular rite upon arriving at the age of puberty, and have a great feast at the time. Other tribes flog and imprison their daughters when they reach womanhood.

[186]The Guayaquil market is well supplied with fish of a fair quality. Usually the fish of warm tropical waters are poor, but the cold "Humboldt current," which passes along the west coast of Ecuador, renders them as edible as those of temperate zones.

[187]Calledchancacain Peru. In flavor it is very nearly equal to maple-sugar.

[188]First published in theAmerican Journal of Sciencefor September, 1868, to which the reader is referred for other physical observations. The barometric anomaly, noticed particularly on the Lower Amazon, was also observed by Herndon, Castelnau, Chandlers, Spruce, and Wallace.

[189]Qu'ichua on Marañon, tiuiút.

[190]This Table is taken from theRelatoria da Companhia de Navegaçao e Commercio do Amazonas, and includes only the commerce by the Brazilian steamers and the staple products. The vast amount carried by sailing craft and by Peruvian steamers on the Marañon is unknown to us. The number of passengers transported by the steamers in 1867 was 13,886; receipts from passage, $75,744; from freight, $210,654. In the reduction, the milrey has been taken at 50 cts. U.S. currency, which was the rate very nearly in 1867. The alquiere (alq.)—.988 of a bushel; arr. = arroba of 32 lbs.

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