September, 1841.] 83 



Mr. Quinby adverted to the celebrated ruins of the Temple of the 

 Sun at Huanuco viejo, (Tiaguanico*) the Cyclopean fortress, tbe 

 walls composed of enormous masses of square and oblong stones of 

 marble, greenstone and greenstone-porphyry, all which, with their 

 bas reliefs and other ornaments, remain in a remarkable state of 

 preservation. These ruins, as is well known, date beyond the 

 dynasty of the Incas, to a people, however, of the same race, and 

 probably of nearly similar political and religious institutions. 



Mr. Quinby crossed and recrossed the Andes twenty-four times, 

 at seven or eight different passes ; twice from Naranjal, (on the 

 gulf of Guayaquil, one degree and a half south of the equator,) to 

 the city of Cuanca, the capital of the province of Assuay, a little 

 south of Chimborazo ; and having spent more than two weeks at 

 the foot of the Peak of Raura, at least a thousand feet above the 

 line of perpetual snow, he pronounces it the most sublime spot he 

 has visited on the Andean range. Besides the Peak of Raura, 

 which he believes to be at least as high as Chimborazo, there are 

 innumerable smaller ones rising on the range of the Cordilleras, to 

 the north and south, having their bases resting on perpetual snow, 

 and throwing up their snow-clad apices into the pure and attenuated 

 atmosphere, almost beyond the reach of the Condor itself. 



The largest and nearest of these peaks is that of Nueva Potosi, 

 the base of which approaches within one league of that of Raura ; 

 and the intervening space is occupied by the lake called also Neuva 

 Potosi, the surface of which is about 500 feet above the lower 

 limit of perpetual snow ; and as this line, within the tropics is not 

 less than 15,500 feet above the level of the ocean, the lake must 

 consequently have an elevation of 16,000 feet. The water of this 

 lake makes its escape by a subterranean passage on the western 

 slope of the Andes, and also gives rise to the river Haura, which 

 reaches the Pacific at Huacho, the celebrated salinas of the south- 

 ern hemisphere. Mr. Quinby also described the Lake of Raura, 

 one league north of that of Potosi, and giving rise to one of the 

 principal branches of the Amazon. Both of these lakes are the 



*See page 36 of these Proceedings. 



