YiEW FKOM THE CoEDILLEEA. 179 



milk to oiir stomachs' content ; Itulcachi, with its herds of 

 cattle, did not yield a drop. Our dormitory was a mud 

 hovel, w^ithout an aperture for light or ventilation, and in 

 this dark hole we all slept on a heap of barley. Splendid 

 was the view w^estward from Tablon. Below us were the 

 beautiful valleys of Chillo and Puembo, separated by the 

 isolated mountain of Halo ; around them, in an imposing 

 semicircle, stood Cayambi, Imbabura, Pichincha, Corazon, 

 Ihniza, Kuminagui, Cotopaxi, Sincholagua, and Antisana. 

 As the sun went down in his glory behind the western 

 range, the rocky head of Pichincha stood out in bold re- 

 lief, and cast a long shadow^ over the plain. At this halt- 

 ing-place we made the mortifying discovery that the bare- 

 legged Indian who had trotted by our side as a guide and 

 body-servant, and whom we had ordered about with all the 

 indifference of a surly slaveholder, was none other than 

 his Excellency Eugenio Mancheno, governor of Pajiallacta ! 

 After this we were more respectful. 



The next morning, our baggage having come up, we 

 pushed up the mountain through a grand ravine, and over 

 metamorphic rocks standing on their edges with a wavy 

 strike, till we reached a polylepis grove, 12,000 feet above 

 the sea. We lunched under the w^ide-spreading branches 

 of these gnarled and twisted trees, which reminded us of 

 the patriarchal olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, and 

 then, ascending over the monotonous paramo, we stood at 

 the elevation of 15,000 feet on the narrow summit of the 

 Guamani ridge. Some priest had been before us and 

 planted a cross by the roadside, to guide and bless the 

 traveler on his way. 



Of the magnificent prospect eastward, over the begin- 

 ning of the Amazonian Yalley, which this lofty point com- 

 mands, we have already spoken. There was a wild grand- 

 eur in the scene — mountain behind mountain, with deep 



