JOURNEY TO QUITO. 



between Popayan and Quito. We had to cross the Paramos of 

 Pasto, and this in the rainy season, which had already set in. 

 Paramo is the name given in the Andes to those desert regions 

 where, at a height of about 12,000 feet above the sea, all 

 vegetation ceases and the cold is so intense as to penetrate to 

 the very bones. To avoid the heat of the valley of the Patia, 

 where malaria exists to such an extent that one night spent 

 within its precincts may engender a fever known among the 

 Spaniards as the " calentura de Patia," lasting from three 

 to four months, we crossed over the peak of the Cordilleras, 

 through a pass abounding with frightful precipices, to Almager, 

 whence we proceeded to Pasto, situated at the foot of a terrific 

 volcano. 



6 It would hardly be possible to picture a more horrible road 

 than that by which access is obtained to this little town, where 

 we spent Christmas (1801), and where we were welcomed by the 

 inhabitants with a touching hospitality. Thick woods inter- 

 spersed with morasses, in which the mules sank up to the girths, 

 and narrow paths winding through such clefts in the rocks that 

 ^ne could almost fancy one was entering the gallery of a mine, 

 while the road was paved with the bones of mules which had 

 perished through cold or fatigue. The whole province of Pasto, 

 Including the environs of Gruachucal and Tuqueres, consists 

 of a frozen mountain plateau, almost above the limit of vegeta- 

 tion and surrounded by volcanoes and solfataras, from which 

 wreaths of smoke continually issue. The unfortunate inhabi- 

 tants of these regions live almost entirely upon potatoes, and 

 when this crop fails, as it did last year, they are obliged to re- 

 treat to the mountains, where they live upon the achupalla 

 (Pourretia Pitcarnia), a small tree of which they eat the stem. 

 As this tree serves also for food to the bears of the Andes, it 

 is often only by contending with these animals that they 'can 

 possess themselves of this the only sustenance afforded by 

 nature to man at this elevated region. 



' In the Indian village of Voisaco, 8,990 feet above the level 

 of the sea, situated to the north of the volcano of Pasto, I dis- 

 covered some red clay and hornstone porphyry mingled with 

 vitreous felspar, possessing all the properties of the serpentine 



