EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF QUITO. 
object of our inquiries, and next morning 
set out for Banos. 
There is a striking change, both in land- 
scape and climate, when, after travelling 
about two leagues from Pelilco, over a 
cultivated, monotonous country, one arrives 
at the ridge which overlooks the valley of 
Baños, formed by the course of the river 
Achacubo, which descends from Alausi 
and the roots of Chimborazo, emerging 
from a thick copse resplendent with Fuch- 
sias, Lobelias, and Andromedas, and a 
variety of flowering shrubs, we have Tun- 
garagua, with its truncated cone and cra- 
ter rising majestically in our front, on the 
opposite side of the valley, the depth of 
which is about 1,000 feet below the ridge. 
The climate is not only more tropical, but 
there is a constant opposition in its seasons 
with those of the table land above. When 
the rains set in, in the valley, it is summer 
in the highlands, and wice versá, The 
muddy state of the road through the copse, 
first indicated this change. Descending by 
the tortuous path, about midway of the 
ridge, we came to the plantation of Tun- 
guravilla. Here we were to look for the 
poisonous exhzlations. We met with the 
owner of the farm near his house, but he 
could tell us nothing about it; and we 
were on the point of giving up the search, 
when an Indian, working on the estate, of- 
fered to conduct us to it: in fact, it was 
not an hundred yards from his dwelling. 
He pointed out to us, a small aperture or 
cleft in the midst of a thicket, round which 
lay several dead birds. It was a small 
fountain of carbonic acid gas, of the same 
nature as the Grotto del Cane, in Italy. 
The vapour was strong enough to kill 
small animals, which happened to stray 
within its influence. We continued our 
descent, through brakes and briars, to the 1 
edge of the river. Its wild and terrible 
beauty is fresh on my memory, but the 
painter and poet are alone privileged to 
pourtray Nature's grander features: less 
perhaps, by mere accuracy of imitation, 
than by creating a sense of the sublime or 
us to that of the specta- 
tor. The river Achambo, descending from 
57 
the Canton of Alausi, and collecting the 
waters of Chimborazo, pours a broad and 
rapid stream, subdivided near Guanando 
into several branches, till, arriving at the 
foot of Tungaragua, the whole mass of its 
waters is compassed into a narrow chasm, 
the perpendicular sides of which seem 
hewn by art from the solid rock of tra- 
chytes. Indignant at its confinement, it 
boils, roars, and precipitates itself in foam- 
ing eddies, or leaps, ina glittering cascade, 
contrasting its white spray with the dark 
walls of its prison-house; till, after a course 
of above three leagues, it hurls itself de- 
spairing down the cliff of Agazan, and ob- 
tains its final release in the woods of Ca- 
nelos. We halted, for some minutes, at 
the edge of one of the cataracts, watching 
the rainbows playing on its crest, and its 
wild plunge into the abyss below. We 
then crossed the bridge of Cosua, so fra- 
gile, trembling, and fearfully suspended 
over the gulph, that it might remind one 
of the Mahometan sabre-edged passage 
over hell into paradise. Nobody crosses 
mounted, for the slight fabric totters under 
the tread of a single passenger. The 
breadth of the river is not, here, more 
than 45 feet. From the bridge to the 
torrent, we reckoned might be 100 feet. 
The barometer gave for its elevation above 
the sea, 6,906 feet: the thermometer stood 
at 70°. Continuing about a league along 
^ right bank, we came to the foot of 
Tungaragua; at this point, the united 
streams of Latacunga and Ambato join the 
chambo. For about a mile, the ground 
is covered with immense masses of rock, 
said to have formed the peak of the cone 
of Tungaragua, which was blown off and 
the ruins scattered in their present state, 
during an explosion in 1773, when the vil- 
of Baños was destro with the ex- 
ception of the church, in which the inha- 
bitants found refuge. Beyond this pass, 
the valley expands, and patches of sugar- 
cane indicate the vicinity of Banos, where 
we arrived early in the evening. The situ- 
r ationof the village, embosommed in groves 
of Plantains, Bananas, Orange-trees, and 
Guavas, and surrounded by fields of su- 
