222 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



or a presidencia, had no political history under the Spanish rule. It was, how- 

 ever, the scene of a memorable event in the history of the sciences — the 

 measurement of an arc of the meridian by Bouguer, Godin, La Condamine, and 

 the brothers Ulloa. This important determination enabled La Condamine to 

 supersede Samuel Fritz's map by a more accurate cartographic document ; 

 special attention was at the same time directed to the plateaux and volcanoes 

 of this region, which were then and long after supposed to be the highest on the 

 globe. 



During the Spanish regime Humboldt and Bonpland also came to study the 

 orography, geology, and botany of the land, making those famous ascents of 

 Chimborazo and Pichincha which raised so many questions on the vertical dis- 

 position of climates and floras. 



Scientific exploration was interrupted by the War of Independence and the 

 subsequent political convulsions ; but since the establishment of order Ecuador has 

 been frequently visited by naturalists and students, such as Spruce, Wisse, 

 Reiss and Stiibel. But the interest attaching to volcanic phenomena has tended 

 to concentrate research on the regions already made classical by the labours of 

 La Condamine, Humboldt, and other pioneers. Even Edward Whymper's recent 

 journey, so important in some respects, covers only a small part of the territory 

 of Ecuador. 



Thanks, however, to various geodetic determinations, geographers have been 

 enabled to rectify the older maps in some essential points. Thus it results from 

 the marine surveys, and from those of the engineers engaged in laying down 

 roads and the tracks of future railways, that the whole of the Andine system 

 must be bodily shifted from 12 to 25 miles farther east than was supposed by 

 Humboldt and subsequent cartographers. In this respect the fundamental work 

 on Ecuador is that published by the geologist Wolf in 1892, embodying the 

 results of twenty years'" travels and studies.* 



Ecuador is certainly increasing in population, which, even according to 

 the most cautious estimates, has doubled since the proclamation of inde- 

 pendence. Nearly all the elements of progress are drawn from her own 

 resources, for there has been no immigration in the strict sense, except of the 

 Pastusos from Colombia. Even adventurers and fortune-hunters seldom pene- 

 trate far beyond the coastlands, being little attracted towards a region where 

 the inhabited districts have a rigid climate and poor soil, where volcanoes 

 flame, and the ground quakes almost incessantly beneath the peasant's plough- 

 share, where the highways lead over formidable passes exposed to glacial 

 winds and snowstorms. 



The very sadness natural to the Quichuas, their sullen temperament combined 

 with the gloomy environment, may have even tended to repel immigrants from 

 brighter climes. Nevertheless, the construction of roads, already begun, cannot 

 fail to open up for settlement the more favourable tracts, both on the Pacific and 

 Amazonian slopes of the Andes. 



* Teodoro Wolf, Geoijrafia y Geologia del Ecuador. 



