494 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



that the actual possessor was a gentleman of 

 Ambato, Senor Salvador Ortega, to whom I made 

 application for it, and he had the kindness to 

 have it brought immediately from Quito, where 

 it was deposited, and placed in my hands ; I am 

 therefore indebted to that gentleman's kindness 

 for the pleasure of being able to lay the accom- 

 panying copy of the map before the Geographical 

 Society. 



The original map is formed of eight small sheets 

 of paper of rather unequal size (those of my copy 

 exactly correspond to them), pasted on to a piece of 

 coarse calico, the whole size being 3 feet loj inches 

 by 2 feet 9 inches. It is very neatly painted with a 

 fine pencil in Indian ink the roads and roofs of 

 houses red but it has been so roughly used that it 

 is now much dilapidated, and the names, though 

 originally very distinctly written, are in many cases 

 scarcely decipherable : in making them out I have 

 availed myself of the aid of persons familiar with 

 the localities and with the Ouichua language. The 

 attempt to combine a vertical with a horizontal 

 projection of the natural features of the country 

 has produced some distortion and dislocation, and 

 though the actual outline of the mountains is in- 

 tended to be represented, the heights are much 

 exaggerated, and consequently the declivities too 

 steep. Thus the apical angle of the cone of 

 Cotopaxi (as I have determined it by actual 

 measurement) is 121 , and the slope (inclination 

 of its surface to the horizon) 29^ ; while on 

 Guzman's map the slope is 69^", so that the 

 inclination is only three-sevenths of what he has 

 represented it, and we may assume a correspond- 



