THE 



PLATEAU OF CAXAMABCA, 

 THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCA ATAHUALLPA. 



AFTER a residence of an entire year on the crest of the chain 

 of the Andes or Antis( 1 ), between 4 North and 4 South 

 Latitude, in the high plains of New Granada, Pastos, and 

 Quito, whose mean elevations range between 8500 and 12800 

 English feet, we rejoiced in descending gradually through 

 the milder climate of the Quina-yielding forests of Loxa to 

 the plains of the upper part of the course of the Amazons, 

 a terra incognita rich in magnificent vegetation. The small 

 town of Loxa has given its name to the most efficacious of 

 all the species of medicinal Fever-Bark : Quina, or Cascarilla 

 fina de Loxa. It is the precious production of the tree which 

 we have described botanically as Cinchona condaminea, but 

 which, under the erroneous impression that all the kinds 

 of the Quina or fever bark of commerce were furnished by 

 the same species of tree, had previously been called Cin- 

 chona officinalis. The Fever Bark was first brought to 

 Europe towards the middle of the seventeenth century, 



