224 



ECUADOR. 



tend very far over the surface of the earth, and 

 become longer as the distance from the center 

 is greater. The great Lisbon earthquake of 

 1755 is known to have made the water in the 

 pools and lakes of England wash from side to 

 side as in a basin which is tilted. The unex- 

 plained rise and fall in the waters of the Swiss 

 lakes, and in the great lakes of America and 

 the Baltic, may be connected with seismolog- 

 ical phenomena. 



Earthquakes are now held to originate most 

 frequently in the expansion of gases and vapor 

 of water inside the crust of the earth. All the 

 great volcanoes are situated near the sea, and 

 emit during their eruptions immense volumes 

 of steam. The effect noted by Perrey, of Di- 

 jon, that earthquakes occur with the greatest 

 frequency at the perigee of the moon and its 

 conjunction with the sun, which led him to 

 suppose a tidal action of the conjectural fluid 

 interior of the earth, can be explained by the 

 pressure of the tide-water which causes more 

 water to penetrate the interstices of the rock 

 into the local caldrons, which produce earth- 

 quakes and volcanic eruptions. M. Daubree 

 announced to the French Academy of Sciences 

 in June, 1882, that the water in the drainage- 

 trenches of the English Channel Tunnel rose 

 and fell with the tide. An increase of earth- 

 quakes has also been noted after rains and in- 

 undations. The influence of the tides is not, 

 however, very strong, since Dr. Schmidt has 

 collated the reports of three thousand earth- 

 quakes, and even found a maximum at the 

 perion of the full moon, while De Rossi, Grab- 

 lovitz, and Mercalli have noted similar anoma- 

 lies. 



ECUADOR (REPLICA DEL ECUADOR). The 

 territorial division of this country has recently 

 been modified by the formation of a new prov- 

 ince, Veintemilla (named after the present Dic- 

 tator), corresponding to the old province of 

 Carchi, and having for its capital Tulcan. 



The Chief Magistrate of Ecuador is General 

 Ignacio de Veintemilla, inaugurated as Presi- 

 dent in December, 1876" Supreme Chief," in 

 virtue of the pronunciamiento of April 2, 

 1882. The First Designado (or Vice-President) 

 was Sefior L. Salvador; and the Second De- 

 signado (or Second Vice-President), Senor F. 

 Arias. 



The Cabinet, at the end of the year, was 

 composed of the following Ministers : Interior 

 and Foreign Aifairs, Seflor F. Arias ; Finance 

 and Public Works, Sefior de Icaza; War and 

 Marine, Sefior Echeverria. 



The Governor of Guayaquil was General J. 

 Sanchez Rubio. 



The army in time of peace is usually about 

 1,200 strong. 



^ In the absence of official returns it would be 

 difficult to ascertain the precise condition of 

 the national finances at the present time ; but 

 it may be stated that the revenue seldom ex- 

 ceeds $2,500,000, while the expenditure rarely 

 falls short of $3,500,000. 



The usual sources of income have grown 

 much more productive than in former years ; 

 but the maximum aggregate revenue hitherto 

 registered for any one year has been 3,594,000 



According to the report of the proceedings 

 at a meeting of the bondholders called (in Lon- 

 don) in 1881, for the purpose of obtaining sanc- 

 tion to a resolution proposing the basis of an 

 arrangement which it was hoped might be ef- 

 fected with the Government of the Republic, 

 the principal of the foreign debt of Eucador, 

 as agreed upon in 1854, was 1,824,000, bear- 

 ing interest at one per cent, with the possi- 

 bility of a rise should the yield of the Guaya- 

 quil custom-house exceed $400,000 per annum. 

 No increase of rate had ever been obtained, 

 notwithstanding the marked improvement in 

 the customs receipts at the port just mentioned ; 

 indeed, payment of the stipulated rate had only 

 been made for about twelve years, when it 

 was totally suspended. The arrears of interest 

 amounted, at the time of the meeting, to 264,- 

 480, and the aggregate indebtedness, conse- 

 quently, to 2,088,000, which it was then pro- 

 posed to convert into 950,000 of new five per 

 cent bonds. The home debt was stated to 

 amount to 7,250,000 pesos at the beginning of 

 1877. Interesting details relating to the for- 

 eign debt were given in the volumes of the 

 " Annual Cyclopedia " for 1874, 1875, and 

 1881. 



The foreign trade of the republic is chiefly 

 carried on through the port of Guayaquil. The 

 staples of export are cacao, Peruvian bark, 

 India-rubber, hides, ivory-nuts, coffee, and 

 gold-dust. Foremost in importance among 

 these commodities is cacao, the quantity an- 

 nually shipped being of the average value of 

 6,000,000 pesos. The shipments of cacao for 

 1882 were but 18,904,693 pounds, against 22,- 

 308,235 pounds for 1881, and 31,546,657 pounds 

 for 1879. Next in order is Peruvian bark, the 

 trade in which has been rapidly increasing for 

 some few years ; ivory-nuts rank immediately 

 after the bark, and these are followed by India- 

 rubber. The exports of the last three arti- 

 cles are of the mean annual value of 450,000 

 400,000, and 350,000 pesos respectively. The 

 coffee-shipments are less uniform in impor- 

 tance: those for 1873 were of the value of 

 182,385 pesos, while those for 1879 did not 

 reach one half of that amount. 



The exports to the United States were as 

 follow in 1882 : hides, 1,233,890 pounds ; In- 

 dia-rubber, 933,111 pounds; cacao, 1,323,091 

 pounds; Peruvian bark, 139,745 pounds; ivory- 

 nuts, 159,897 pounds; coffee, 10,000 pounds; 

 sarsaparilla, 4,558 pounds ; the aggregate value 

 of the shipments, including 1,817 pesos in spe- 

 cie, having been 1,283,043 pesos, against but 

 $1,049,220 for 1879. The imports from the 

 United States for the year last mentioned were 

 of the value of $1,148, 350. 



From the figures of the following table it will 

 be seen that the trade between Great Britain 





