Ch. vil south AMERICA. 423 



It has been before observed, that all the depen- 

 dencies of the jurisdictions of this province are situated 

 betwixt the two Cordilleras of the Andes ; and tliat 

 the air is moreorless cold according to the height of 

 the mountains, and the ground more or less arid. 

 These arid tracts are called Paramos, or deserts ; for 

 though all the Cordilleras are dry or arid, some of 

 them are much more so than others ; for the continual 

 snowsand frost renderthem absolutely uninhabitable, 

 even by the beasts ; nor is there a single plant to be 

 found upon them. 



Some of these mountains, seemingly as it were 

 founded on others, rise to a most astonishing height, 

 and are covered with snow even to their summits. The 

 latter we shall more particularly treat of, as they are 

 the most remarkable and curious objects. 



The paramo of Asuay, formed by the junction of 

 the two Cordilleras, is not of this class ; for, though 

 remarkable for its excessive coldness and aridity, its 

 height does not exceed that of the Cordilleras in 

 general, and is much lower than that of Pichincha 

 and Corazón. Its height is the degree of the climate, 

 where a continual congelation or freezing commences; 

 and as the mountains exceed this height, so are they 

 perpetually covered with ice and snow ; that from a 

 determined point above Carabucu for instance, or the 

 surface of the sea, the congelation is found at the 

 same height in all the mountains. From barometrical 

 experiments made at Pucaguayco, on the mountain 

 Cotopaxi, the height of the mercury was 16 inches 

 Ói lines ; whence we determined the height of that 

 place to be lOGá toises above the plain of Carabucu, 

 and that of the latter above the superhcies of the sea 

 about 1 ¿6S. Thus the height of Pucaguayco, above 

 the surface of tiie sea, is 22.91 toises. The signal 

 which we placed on this mountain v/as thirty or forty 

 toises above the ice, or point of continual congela- 

 tion; and the perpendicular height from the com- 



E e 4 mencement' 



