PROVINCE OF QUITO. 205 



and little difference is perceptible between them. 

 Hence the inhabitants seldom vary their dress 

 throughout the year, while the healthy winds that 

 blow continually, and most generally from north to 

 south, preserve the country from being parched by 

 the rays of a fervid sun. Noxious insects are con- 

 sequently very rare. Mosquitoes, which are so in- 

 tolerable in many of the warmer portions of the 

 globe, are entirely unknown, nor are any venomous 

 reptiles seen even during the rainy season. Thus 

 is Quito, though lying beneath the line, and exposed 

 by its situation to a degree of heat even greater than 

 that which parches up the deserts of Arabia, ren- 

 dered not only habitable, but even pleasant: a benign 

 abode for civilized men, and covered with luxuriant, 

 vegetation. Fruits and flowers grow there in great 

 abundance, and the extremes of heat and cold, are 

 so happily determined, that the moisture of the earth, 

 instead of being dried up, is rendered conducive to the 

 support of vegetable life, while such little difference 

 is perceptible throughout the year, that the various 

 productions of the seasons are blended in gay pro- 

 fusion. The European, therefore, who speaks of 

 spring and summer, of autumn and of winter, as 

 distinct from one another, observes, with admiration, 

 that while one plant is fading, another of the same 

 kind is springing up; that while some flowers are 

 going to seed, others of equal beauty are beginning 

 to expand ; that, further, while rich fruits are 

 waiting only to be gathered, and leaves to change 

 their colour, fresh leaves spring forth, and flowers 

 open, and even fruits begin to ripen on the same 

 tree. Similar gradations are equally conspicuous in 



