276 A VOYAGE TO Book V. 



would, from its situation, conclude to be uninhabitable: 

 nature has here scattered her blessings with so liberal 

 a hand, that this country surpasses those of the tem- 

 perate zones, where the vicissitudes of winter and 

 summer, and the change from heat to cold, cause the 

 extremes of both to be more sensibly felt. 



The method taken by nature to render this country 

 a delightful habitation, consists in an assemblage of 

 circumstances, of which if any were wanting, it would 

 either be utterly uninhabitable, or subject to the great- 

 est inconveniences. But by this extraordinary assem- 

 blage, the effect of the rays of the sun is averted, and 

 the heat of that glorious planet moderated. The 

 principal circumstance in this assemblage is its ele- 

 vated situation above the surface of the sea^ or, ra- 

 ther, of the whole earth ; and. thus not only the re- 

 flexion of the heat is diminished, but by the eleva- 

 tion of this country, the winds are more subtile, con- 

 gelation more natural, and the heat abated. These 

 are such natural effects as must doubtless be attri- 

 buted to its situation ; and is the only circumstance 

 from whence such prodigies of nature, as are ob- 

 served here, can proceed. In one part are mountains 

 of a stupendous height and magnitude, having their 

 summits covered with snow ; on the other, volcanoes 

 ilaming within, while their summits, chasms, and aper- 

 tures, are involved in ice. The plains are temperate; 

 the breaches and valleys hot; and, lastly, according to 

 the disposition of the country, its high or low situation, 

 we find all the variety of gradations of temperature, 

 possible to be conceived between the two extremes 

 of heat and cold. 



Quito is so happily situated, that neither the hear 

 nor cold is troublesome^ though the extremes of both 

 may be felt in its neighbourhood ; a singularity suf- 

 ficiently demonstrated by the following thremome- 

 trical experiments. Onthe jist of May, 1736, the li- 

 quor in the thermometer stood at loi i : at half an hour 



after 



