58 
gar-cane, presents an image of tropical 
fertility and abundance; but the reality is 
sadly wanting. There is such a scarcity 
of provisions, that invalids, who resort to 
the baths, are obliged to furnish them- 
selves with supplies, as if for a sea-voyage. 
The common spirits of the country alone 
are plentiful ; and this plenty, by the dissi- 
pated habits it engenders, accounts, per- 
haps, for the scarcity of every thing else. 
The inhabitants are few: their houses 
built with wattles, and thatched with grass. 
Their chief food is maze, and the differ- 
ent species of Pumpkins and Gourds, 
which are produced without the toil of 
cultivation. 
The curate, whom we visited on our ar- 
rival complained bitterly of his banish- 
ment ; and we found it necessary to make 
no longer a stay than might be sufficient 
to consume a couple of hens, the only 
provisions which, with great difficulty, we 
could purchase. Yet, with the advantages 
of industry, joined to those of nature, Ba- 
fios would be a retreat alike agreeable to 
the naturalist, the invalid, and the philo- 
sopher. The hot spring issues from a 
bank of yellow clay, at the foot of a per- 
pendicular cliff, close to the village : its 
temperature is 130°. It is neither chaly- 
beate nor sulphureous, but appears to con- 
tain carbonic acid gas. A cascade falls 
from the summit of the cliff, contrasting its 
silver spray with the thick verdure which 
partly shadows its descent, and the bright 
green of the Bananas which grow at its 
foot. This streamlet seems to temper the 
waters of the spring, so that baths may be 
formed to suit the bather's taste. Nature 
has done everything—art, 
only bathing-house is a miserable f 
leaves, into which it is necessary to creep 
ess. Close to the. village runs a ri- 
vulet, called Baltun, the. omis of which 
tive salt, pro- 
o 
= " 
sh ap 
are impregnated 
bably Sulphate of Soda 
The day after our "im (Dec. 3rd,) we 
set out to visit the Kalis ot. ren. about 
EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF QUITO. | 
nothing; forthe | 
shed 
down, as wild and furious, in a small way, : 
as the river with which it unites. About - 
two miles further, a sudden descent down . 
a ledge of rocks places the traveller at the 
foot of the bridge of Aqajan so suddenly, © 
that he starts, involuntarily, to find himself 
on the brink of an abyss, with its “hell of 
waters" boiling far below him. The solid 
crag seems trembling with the uproar, and 
the bridge, narrow and fragile as that of 
Casua, leads to a chasm in the precipice 
on the opposite side, said to have been . 
cut by the Incas, through which there is a 
flight of steps to the table-land above, and - 
farm of Aqajan. A gate secures the head | 
of the pass, which seems rather befitting the 
donjon-keep of some feudal fortress, than - 
the approach to a peaceable farm-house. - 
It is not more than a mile and a half © 
from the farm to the falls, but the path is © 
so intricate, that we contrived to lose 
both it, and each other. M. Boussingault, - 
however, reached them; as I had visited - 
them before, I was less anxious. Their - 
height, I consider about one hundred and . 
fifty feet; their breadth, perhaps, not more , 
than twenty-five. The dark colour of the — 
rocks, the contracted glen, and absence of - 
vegetation, give them a character of gloomy ~ 
sublimity, like the outlet of a dungeon, 
from which the liberated waters burst into 
the light and sunshine of the forests below. | 
This remarkable gap in the Cordillera, | 
lies betwixt the summits of Llanganato to — 
the North, and Zungaragua to the South. — 
One should be inclined to attribute to the 
action of a volcano the formation of this | 
nating at this outlet, as will be evident 
from the following heights: 
From the North, or Paramo of Tiopulo,— : 
feet. 
ba a 10,092 
Latacunga 9,170 
San Miguel... 8,900 
Ambato...... ,540 
uio Pallas. versos 8,412. 
- Bridge of Casua, 6,906 
