HYDROGRAPHY OP ECUADOR. 



237 



tation even along tolerably steep inclines, transforms its surface to a veritable 

 sponge, like the turf bogs of the Irish mountains. Here the matted arborescent 

 growths are in some districts replaced by grasses or, rather, sharp-pointed reeds 

 {chusquea aristata), forming almost impenetrable masses of an average height of 

 about 10 feet. In order to make any progress the wayfarer has to brush them 

 aside with both arms, as in the act of swimming, pressing with the whole weight 

 of his body on these herbaceous waves. 



The spongy chusquea savannas peculiar to Ecuador are succeeded by rugged 



Fig. 92. TUNGUEAGUA AND PaSTAZA GoEGE. 



Scale 1 : 900,000. 





> 



' ^ 



V -^ 





{ if 



-Wi 



^y\ 





^^ 







.:t.MÊ^s3m i -v^ 



78"40' 



nesiol" breenv 



78° 



18 Miles. 



heights, swift streams, and woodlands festooned with the endless coils of lianas, 

 the dangers, hardships, risks of sickness and death increasing with every step. 

 One reads with astonishment that Gonzalo Pizarro was able to bring back alive 

 even eighty of his followers from his memorable expedition of 1540 to the " Land 

 of Cinnamon," as it was called. On emerging from these wild Andine valleys, 

 the watercourses forming the Napo, Pastaza, Paute, and even the affluents of these 

 Amazonian streams, are already copious rivers difficult to cross. 



The Napo, formerly Naapo, fed by the snows of Antisana and Cotopaxi, 



