CHAP. IV. THE LITTER. 87 



are many precipitous cliffs, that sometimes completely sever the 

 glaciers on the apparent summit ridge from the secondary ones 

 below. The glacier J of my map (Glacier de Chuquipoquio) is 

 an example. This and the Glacier de Moreno are conspicuous 

 at the tambo, and several others which are laid down upon the 

 maj) are also more or less seen from it. Between their inferior 

 extremities and Chuquipoquio there are several transverse ridges, 

 which are hilly rather than mountainous in character ; ^ and on 

 the eastern side of the tambo the slopes become still more 

 gentle, and finally die out a little distance short of Riobamba. 



Perring returned on the evening of the 16th, bringing 

 thirteen mules, eight wild-looking Indians, and two persons in 

 uniform who had been sent by the Governor of Ambato as a 

 ' guard of honour.'' He said that no vehicle of any kind could 

 be procured, and that the Indians had come to carry me upon 

 a litter. In the early morning they began to construct it, first 

 of all having to make ropes to bind it together ; and they 



1 On Jan. 15, Jean-Antoine and I walked across the eastern end of Chim- 

 borazo, and turned the corner about a mile from the base of the Glacier de 

 Moreno. We continued round the northern side at a level of about 14,000 feet 

 until we were due south of the summits of Carihuairazo, then dropped down into 

 the valley which occupies the depression between the two mountains, and 

 descended it as far as the high road, and so came back to our starting-point. 

 Our tracli is not given upon the map. 



In the course of this walk, we found a Calceolaria {0. rosmarinifolia, Lam.) 

 in abundance near Chuquipoquio ; and several species of Oentiana, of Lupinus 

 and Cerasiium, a Valeriana, a Vaccinium and a Ranunculus {R. Reruvianus, 

 Pers.) growing between 12,000 and 14,000 feet. The grasses upon the slopes 

 were principally Poas, Fescues, and Deyeuxias. When about 13,800 feet high we 

 caught sight of a large white spot about a mile off, and found it was an isolated 

 patch of a splendid grass (Gynerium argenteum, Nees) growing eight to nine 

 feet high, by the side of a little stream. A few days later we discovered the 

 same species two thousand feet lower, near Mocha, but these were the only 

 localities where it was noticed. A little below 14,000 feet, on the north-east 

 side of the mountain, at the foot of some cliffs, facing the north, I was attracted 

 from a long distance by the flowers of some Currant bushes (Ribes glandulosum, 

 R. & P.). This is the greatest elevation at which an example of that Order 

 was obtained in Ecuador. 



