250 SOUTH AMEBIC A— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



alluvial gold by an ingenious process acquired without any instruction from the 

 Californian miners. 



These marvellously fertile low-lying coastlands have for natural haven the 

 Ancon de las Sardinas, with its deep harbour of Fai.lon, well sheltered by islands 

 and headlands, and far better situated than Guayaquil for deep-sea navigation. It 

 takes its name from the shoals of fish of all kinds to which the Spaniards give the 

 sreneral name of "sardines," and which are used both as food and manure. 



Quito, city of the ancient Quitu nation, and present capital of Ecuador, 

 follows south of Ibarra and Otavalo, along the line of Andean volcanoes. The 

 urban population, variously estimated at from 25,000 to 40,000, was formerly much 

 greater, when Quito was capital of one of the Quichua empires, and when under 

 the Spanish rule it shared with Bogota the government of a vast colonial depen- 

 dency, besides being the centre of the Jesuit missions scattered over the Amazons 

 basin, 



Quito, the city of perennial spring, with a climate whose temperature scarcely 

 varies two degrees between the hottest and the coldest months, stands at an alti- 

 tude of 9,350 feet on the last eastern slopes of Pichincha in a narrow basin 

 bordered eastwards by the Poingasi ridge. Deep ravines, dividing the city into 

 several sections, rapidly discharge the rain and sewer waters through a torrent 

 to the Guallabamba affluent of the Pacific. Thanks to its ste?p incline, its 

 channels, and the pure water drawn from Pichincha, Quito continues to enjoy a 

 salubrious climate. 



South-westwards rises the regular dome-shaped Panecillo (Yavirac) eminence, 

 crowned by ruins dating from the Inca period and by Spanish structures. This 

 old volcanic cone commands a panoramic view of the whole city, with its suburbs, 

 its monuments, and gardens, together with the vast circuit of volcanoes bounding 

 the horizon on all sides — the sharp-peaked Cotocachi on the north, then to right 

 and left massive Yana-Urcu, snowy Cayambe, Sincholagua, smoking Cotopaxi, 

 with its humbler neighbours, Pasochoa and Huminahui, and lastly the western 

 chain formed by Corazon, Atacazo, and double-crested Pichincha. 



Regularly laid out, but built of low houses, here and there cracked by earth- 

 quakes, *' Quito bonito " (the " charming"), as the surrounding peasantry call it, 

 is nevertheless a dull city, like the people that inhabit it. There are, however, a 

 few interesting buildings, a librar}'', museums, some fifty convents, mostly dilapi- 

 dated. Several of these contain some fine paintings, for Ecuador boasts of having 

 created the "Quito School" with over a dozen painters constantly engaged in 

 reproducing the images of the saints for the local demand and for the export 

 trade. As there is no school of design, nearly all the artists begin as simple 

 pupils with their father or some patron, and several acquire a remarkable dexterity 

 in handling the brush. 



The observatory, which recent studies place some 18 miles east of the position 

 indicated by Humboldt,* stands in the middle of a garden at the north-east 



* Longitude of the Quito Observatory according to Humboldt : 81° 4' 38" E. of Paris; according to 

 Stubel: 80° 47' 54". 



