UPPER AMAZON. 289 



is conical, but the top is not truncated, like that of 

 Cotopaxi, being rounded or semicircular in outline. 



While at Quito, Humboldt received a letter from 

 the National Institute of France, by which he was 

 apprized that Captain Baudin had set out for New-- 

 Holland by the Cape of Good Hope. He was 

 obhged therefore to renounce all thoughts of joining 

 the expedition, although the hope of being able to 

 meet it had induced him to relinquish his plan of 

 proceeding from Cuba to Mexico and the Philippine 

 Islands, and had led him upwards of 3452 miles 

 southward. The travellers, however, consoled 

 themselves with the thought of having examined 

 regions over which the eye of science had never 

 before glanced; and, resolved henceforth to trust 

 solely to their own resources, after spending some 

 months in exploring the Andes, they set out in the 

 direction of Lima. 



They first pointed their course to the great River 

 Amazon, visiting the ruins of Lactacunga, Hambato, 

 and Riobamba, in a country the face of which was 

 entirely changed by the frightful earthquakes of 

 1797, that destroyed nearly 40,000 of the inhabitants. 

 They then with great difficulty passed to Loxa, 

 where in the forests of Gonzanama and Malacates 

 they examined the trees which yield the Peruvian 

 bark. The vast extent of ground which they trav- 

 ersed in the course of their expedition afforded 

 them better opportunities than any botanist had 

 ever enjoyed of comparing the different species of 

 cinchona. 



Leaving Loxa they entered Peru by Ayavaca and 

 Gouncabamba, traversing the ridge of the Andes to 

 descend to the River Amazon. In two days they 

 had to cross thirty-five times the Rio de Chayma. 

 They saw the magnificent remains of the causeway 

 of the incas, which traversed the porphyritic sum- 

 mits from Cusco to Assouay, at a height varying 

 from 7670 to 11,510 feet. At the village of Chamaya, 



Bb 



