THE CINCHONA-FORESTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 507 



Aberdeen has clad itself in the stern but not unattractive gray and 

 blue of its own solid granite. To the Caen stone, tbe Bath stone, and 

 the Portland stone we owe half our cathedrals and abbeys, whose deli- 

 cate tracery could never have been wrought in Rowley rag or Whin 

 Sill basalt. The architecture of granite or hard limestone regions is 

 often massive and imposing, but it always lacks the beauty of detailed 

 sculpture or intricate handicraft. The marble lattice-work of the 

 Taj or the " prentice's pillar " of Roslyn Chapel is only possible in a 

 soft and pliable material. 



Thus we see that agriculture and manufactures, art and science, 

 are all largely influenced by geological conditions. Indeed, it would 

 not be too much to assert that, after climate and geographical situa- 

 tion, geology is the greatest differentiating agent of national charac- 

 ter. Every people is primarily what it is in virtue of the heredity it 

 derives from the common ancestors of its whole stock ; but, so far as 

 it differs from other descendants of the same stock, the differences 

 must mainly have been caused by those three great natural agencies, 

 acting and reacting in conjunction with the original hereditary ten- 

 dencies. The immense complexity of such actions and reactions ren- 

 ders them difficult to trace in detail ; but the general principle which 

 they illustrate can hardly be missed by those who read history with a 

 wide and comprehensive glance. Jfyaser's Magazine. 



-<"*- 



THE CINCHONA- FORESTS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 



Bt HENRY S. WELLCOME. 



IN the month of June, 1879, 1 visited some of the principal cinchona 

 districts of South America. The following notes are based upon 

 my own observation and information obtained from native bark deal- 

 ers and gatherers. I shall speak more particularly of the cinchona- 

 forests of Ecuador, once the only source of bark, and still yielding 

 large quantities. The bark territory is divided into the district known 

 as Bosque de (forest of) Guaranda and Bosque de Loja. 



The Bosque de Guaranda is a vast forest, extending from about 

 1 north to 2 south ; it covers with its rich verdure the western slopes of 

 Chimborazo, and the outlying ranges of the Cordilleras to more than ten 

 thousand feet above the sea-level, encompassing within its higher limits 

 the picturesque city of Guaranda. This district is the source of most 

 of the barks exported from Guayaquil, and has never yet been fully 

 explored. Guayaquil, the main shipping port of Ecuador, is a city 

 of thirty thousand inhabitants, situated on the Guayaquil River, sixty 

 miles from its mouth. The river is navigable to this point by large 

 ocean-steamers. The southern extremity of the Bosque de Guaranda 



