Ch. i. south AMERICA. 199 



feet, and without any rail ; so that one false step pre- 

 cipitates the mule into the torrent, where it is inevi- 

 tably lost ; accidents, according to the report of our 

 guides, not uncommon. These bridges, by the rot- 

 ting of the wood under water, are annually re[)aired 

 towards winter, the only season when they are used ; 

 the rivers during the summer being fordable. 



When a person of distinction, as a president, a 

 bishop, &c. is on a journey from Caracol or Baba- 

 hoyo, the corregidor of Guaranda dispatches Indians 

 for building cottages at the usual resting-places, like 

 that we found at Tarigagua ; and these being left 

 standing, serve afterwards for other passengers, till the 

 rains destroy them. When these are thrown down, 

 travellers must content themselves with the huts 

 which their Indian guides build with wonderful dis- 

 patch. 



At Tarigagua, on the 17th, at six in the morning, 

 the thermometer stood at 10144.. And having been 

 for some time accustomed to hot climates, we now 

 sensibly felt the cold. It is remarkable, that we here 

 often see instances of the effects oftwo opposite tem- 

 peratures, in two persons happening to meet, one of 

 them coming from Guayaquil, and the other from the 

 mountains: the latter finding the hciit so great that 

 he is scarce able to bear any clothes, while the former 

 wraps himself up in all the garments he can procure. 

 The one is so delighted with the warmth of the water 

 of the river, that he bathes in it; the other thinks it so 

 cold, that he avoids being spattered by it. Nor is the 

 case very different even in the same person, who, af- 

 ter a journey to the mountains, is returning to Guaya- 

 quil, or viceversa^ provided the journey and return be 

 made at the same season of the year. This sensible 

 difference proceeds only from the change naturally 

 felt at leaving a climate to which one has been ac- 

 customed, and coming into another of an opposits* 

 temperature ; and thus two persons, one used to a 



O 4 cold 



