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ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



thesis. The altitudes of the towns in feet are from the Commercial 

 Travelers' Guide to Latin America (Dept. Commerce, Misc. Ser. 89). 



The highland of the Andes is usually known as the sierra. The 

 forested slopes of the eastern side are called the montaiia. The high, 

 treeless regions below snow line are called paramos, the same name 

 being used in Colombia. 



The Oriente is the region lying east of the Cordillera in the val- 

 ley of the Amazon. It gradually merges into the montana of the 

 east slope and is only partially explored. The inhabitants are mostly 

 indios or aboriginal tribes, though there are a few settlements of 

 half -casts and negroes along the rivers, with here and there a white 

 man. The Oriente is in the main covered with virgin forest and 

 travel is chiefly by canoe at the lower altitudes. In the western 

 portion where the rivers are too precipitous for canoes the travel 

 is by trail, but owing to the high rainfall, the absence of bridges, 

 and the general defectiveness of the paths, the going is difficult. 

 Much of the Oriente is disputed territory between Ecuador and 

 Peru. On Peruvian maps the boundary line runs about 20 miles 

 east of Loja, Ambato, and Ibarra. 



CITIES AND RAILROADS IN ECUADOR 



Aside from the disputed Oriente, Ecuador has an area of about 

 120,000 square miles, about the size of Arizona or New Mexico. The 

 largest city, Guayaquil, has a population of about 100,000, and 

 Quito, the capital and second city, a population of about half as much. 



The most important railroad, the Guayaquil and Quito, goes 

 across the coastal plain from Duran, opposite Guayaquil, and 

 ascends a valley to the sierra, passing by Huigra and Alausi. The 

 building of the road here was difficult and the scenery is correspond- 

 ingly magnificent. In places there was not room for curves, so switch- 

 backs or zigzags were resorted to. After rising over a pass at Pal- 

 myra a bleak wind-swept paramo of about 10,000 feet altitude, the 

 road descends to the valley of Kiobamba, which is the terminus for 

 the first day's travel, as the trains do not run at night. The second 

 day the train passes over the flank of Chimborazo, which great snow- 



