2i8 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



hands of the English race. It should be noted that 

 this consummation has also been hindered by our 

 unbroken alliance with the most beggarly nation in 

 Europe (Portugal) -- the nation which most hates 

 the English, because they have most interfered 

 with her staple trade the traffic in human flesh ! 



[Among a quantity of loose notes, headed 

 " Quitonian Andes," the following, on the " Bridge 

 of Banos," seems worth quoting : ] 



" The Pastasa runs in a tortuous course, about 

 40 feet broad, between perpendicular walls 150 feet 

 high, sometimes much excavated at the base, the 

 water foaming against blocks and down cascades 

 into deep caverns, whence it issues in a savage 

 whirl. Across this chasm the frail bridge is thrown, 

 and is higher at its northern side. The adjacent 

 rocky ground seems as if it had been shaken into 

 irregular rather small fragments, not separated but 

 as if the original mass of rock had been crushed 

 without much displacement. The ground rises 

 abruptly to a great height on the left, but lower 

 on the right ; and a col stretches on one side 

 towards the other, looking as if it might formerly 

 have been the barrier of a lake. 



The view down the Pastasa as one descends the 

 hill towards the bridge is savagely sublime. A dense 

 grey curtain of Tillandsia sometimes 30 feet deep- 

 hangs from the cliffs and adjacent trees, contrasting 

 with the black trachytic rock over which it hangs.'' 



[The bridge here referred to was probably of 

 similar construction to that at Agoyan (described 

 at p. 163), which was passed on the route from 



