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BOUGUER*S VOYAGE TO PERU. 



in falts, almoft every morning the falt-petre appears lightly, like meal, fpread over 

 divers places of the ftreets and ways ; I merely relate thefe particular things, and relate 

 them only becaufe I think them worthy of notice. M. de Tournefort has obferved that 

 the water-melons thrive well in the faline foils of Armenia, particularly in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Trois-Eglifes (three churches). To judge by the courfe of the rivers as 

 laid down in our maps, we mufl imagine this laft place to be very elevated. I was much 

 furprifed to find a place at fifteen or fixteen leagues north of Quito, in every refpeft 

 like to the fouth of the river of Mira. The foil there, particularly in the village of 

 Saint Catherine de Salines, is fufficiently impregnated with fait, to furnifh the whole 

 province with that article : excellent water-melons grow in the fame place, and the 

 whole of the canton is the moft fruitful of the Cordelier. 



It is eafy enough to examine into all the depth neceffary of the foil in Peru, the 

 earth being there cut into ravines ; ihefe are found frequently of two hundred toifes 

 broad by from fixty to eighty in depth, fome even more confiderable. Many of 

 them may have been the efFed: of earthquakes, but the moft part have been caufed 

 by the rapid currents of water from the mountains, capable in ftorms of carrying 

 every thing along with them ; yet thefe ftreams at other times are fo fhallow that 

 one may pafs over them without wetting one*s feet ; fometimes the fides of thefe- 

 ravines are cut perpendicularly down, and if we give ourfelves the trouble of going 

 to their origin, we difcover tihiey begin by a vertical fall, which fometimes is not 

 announced by the height of the furface. We frequently walk over a gentle declining 

 fward, and on a fudden come upon the brink of one of thefe precipices. 



It is only neceffary to feek out fome convenient defcent into thofe fpecies of large 

 beds of rivers, which contain at all times but little water, to examine, as one would 

 defire, all the qualities of the different ftratas of the foil. No veftige is diftinguiihable 

 there of thofe violent inundations which have left fo many marks of their ravages in 

 every other region. I have taken every poffible means, but always without fuccefs, 

 to difcover any fhells ; probably the mountains of Peru are too high. You fee much 

 of that black fand which is attracted by the loadftone, and it is eafy to recognife that 

 the ftrata, the different fhades of which are very diftinft, fo far from being the effect 

 of different alluvions, are rather the expanfion of matters vomited from the volcanoes ; 

 almoft every thing there has the appearance of being the work of fire. Some of thefe 

 mountains are, to a very great depth, compofed but of fcorise, of pumice-ftones and 

 fragments of burnt ftones of all fizes, and fometimes all concealed beneath a ftratum 

 of common earth, which bears both herbage and even trees. Thefe materials are 

 ranged in beds of different thicknefs, which diminifh in proportion to their diftance 

 from the mountain : they are obferved to reduce themfelves to a foot, half a foot, 

 and to an inch ; nor are they loft fight of for four or five leagues, when they get into 

 the vicinage of fome other volcano, and then the fame effed; becomes vifible as in 

 the firft. 



Thefe remarks have been made chiefly at the foot of Cotopaxi, which is become a 

 mutilated cone, the fummit of which has been carried away: ithe bafe of this volcano 

 is rounded, and has taken a regular form by the effufion of matter which has not been 

 thrown out with force enough, or which was too light to be impelled. I have before 

 faid, that the ftony pyramids found at the fummit of almoft every mountain, have 

 been only laid bare, perhaps, by the fudden rolling of the foil from them, or by the 

 imperceptibility of their fall. But the caufe, there is much reafon to imagine, has 

 been different with refped to many of them, and poffibly with Pichincha, to which 

 we now allude. It is not impoffible that the rock which is burnt and black, and which 



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