180 MR. R. spruce's visit to the cinchona forests 



covered the whole hill-side with a mass of aromatic flowers, which 

 was an agreeable change from the sterile paramo. The road ran 

 parallel to the Pumachaca, but at a vast height above it. It was 

 well on in the afternoon when we reached the village of Ticsan, 

 still in the cool region, and, as we calculated on finding more com- 

 fortable quarters in Alausi, which was two leagues ahead, we 

 resolved to try to reach it, which we accomplished just after night- 

 fall, having in the day made ten leagues. With some trouble we 

 succeeded in getting a little food for ourselves ; but food for our 

 beasts was of more importance, and we could get none. At four 

 o'clock the following morning I roused my people and sent them 

 out to the neighbouring farms in quest of alfalfa (lucerne) . They 

 returned bringing a mule-load, which, though an insufficient quan- 

 tity, was better than none, and we delayed our journey until 

 eight o'clock, in order that the poor animals might eat, for we 

 had this day only five leagues before us. 



Our road now turned to the right, while that to Cuenca con- 

 tinues southward and crosses the elevated ridge of Azuay. "We 

 still followed the course of the Pumachaca, which gradually turns 

 westward, and bursts through the Cordillera in a gorge so deep 

 and narrow, that with difficulty has a narrow path been cut along 

 the declivity on the southern side. The whole five leagues from 

 Alausi to Chunchi consists of steep ascents and descents, and of 

 perilous crossings of precipitous slopes, not to be passed without 

 a shudder ; for the track is in many places so narrow that two per- 

 sons mounted could not pass each other without endangering the 

 life of one of them. Fortunately our beasts were sure-footed and 

 the road was dry ; in fact, from Ticsan, where we fairly began to 

 descend the western slope of the Cordillera, we found we had got 

 into the height of summer, having left mid-winter behind us at 

 Ambato and Eiobamba. The hill-sides were well covered with 

 grass, but all completely withered up by nearly two months of 

 dry weather ; so that except near the streams, where there was a 

 margin of scrub or low forest, the eye rested on nothing green. 



Alausi stands at about the same height as Ambato, but is sub- 

 ject to still more violent winds, so that even the crops of maize 

 are rarely to be seen standing erect. As a town, it bears no com- 

 parison with Ambato either for size or neatness, and, like all the 

 other pueblos of the canton (of which it is the chef-lieii), seems to 

 have been for several years in a state of decadence : the houses 

 begin to fall and are merely propped up, not repaired or rebuilt ; 

 and yet there are all around valuable farms of wheat and maize. 



