PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 415 



veloped for days in dense mist, or visited by violent and formidable 

 showers of hail consisting not merely of hailstones of different 

 spherical forms, usually a good deal flattened by rotation, but also 

 sometimes of less regular forms, the hail having run together into 

 thin plates of ice (papa-cara) which cut the face and hands. At 

 such times, I have occasionally seen the thermometer sink to 7 or 

 5 Reaumur (47. 8 and 43. 2 Fahr.), and the electric tension of 

 the atmosphere, measured by Volta's electrometer, pass in a few 

 minutes from positive to negative. When the temperature sinks 

 below 5 Reaumur (43. 2 Fahrenheit), snow falls in large and thinly 

 scattered flakes. The vegetation of the Paramos has a peculiar 

 physiognomy and character, from the absence of trees, the short 

 close branches of the small-leaved, myrtle-like shrubs, the large sized 

 and numerous blossoms, and the perpetual freshness of the whole 

 from the constant and abundant supply of moisture. No zone of 

 alpine vegetation in the temperate or cold parts of the globe can 

 well be compared with that of the Paramos in the tropical Andes. 



The impressions produced on the mind by the natural characters 

 of these wildernesses of the Cordilleras are heightened, in a remark- 

 able and unexpected manner, from its being in those very regions 

 that we still see admirable remains of the gigantic work, the arti- 

 ficial road of the Incas, which formed a line of communication through 

 all the provinces of the Empire, extending over a length of more 

 than a thousand English geographical miles. We find, placed at 

 nearly equal distances apart, stations consisting of dwelling houses 

 built of well-cut stone ; they are a kind of Caravanserai, and are 

 called Tambos and sometimes Inca-pilca (from pircca, the wall ?). 

 Some of them are surrounded by a kind of fortification ; others were 

 constructed for baths, with arrangements for conducting hot water j 

 the larger were designed for the use of the family of the Monarch 

 himself. I had previously seen measured, and drawn with care, 

 buildings of the same kind in a good state of preservation at the foot 

 of the volcano of Cotopaxi, near Callo. Pedro de Ciea, writing in 

 the 16th century, called them " Aposentos de Mulalo." ( 3 ) In the 

 pass between Alausi and Loxa, called the Paramo del Assuay (a 

 much frequented route across the Ladera de Cadlud, 14,568 French 

 or 15,526 English feet above the level of the sea, -or almost equal 



