196 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.XIX 



no chance of obtaining a supper and a bed, and 

 we had no alternative but to hold on our way to 

 Riobamba. Having crossed the plaza, we entered a 

 dark narrow street, some way down which we heard 

 several men uttering angry shouts. On nearing 

 them, my horse reared straight up against the 

 wall alarmed at the sight of the dead bull the 

 men were dragging along, and which the gloom 

 had hindered me from seeing. I gave him the 

 lash and he cleared the obstruction at a bound, 

 but his rider narrowly escaped being spilt. Beyond 

 San Andres we had stony descents and ascents ; 

 a drizzling rain came on, which made the night 

 more dark, and we had to leave it entirely to the 

 horses to pick out the way. As I returned by the 

 same route, with daylight, I was horrified to see 

 that for a space of nearly two miles we had skirted 

 the edge of a precipice, where a single false step 

 would have hurled us to destruction. 



Riobamba has about as many inhabitants as 

 Ambato (8000), but it covers more ground, because 

 the streets are wider ; and it is less neatly built. 

 It is of equally modern date, and stands three 

 leagues away to eastward 'of the ruins of ancient 

 Riobamba (overthrown in 1/97) in the midst of 

 a flat sandy desert, where the winds have full play, 

 and raise up whirls of sand that look at a distance 

 like waterspouts at sea. An open aqueduct from 

 the paramos of Chimborazo, 15 miles away, supplies 

 the town with water, which by the time it reaches 

 Riobamba has got so fouled as to be undrinkable 

 until it has been passed through a filtering -jar 

 (called an " estiladera ") that answers its object 

 admirably. 



