CHAP. VIII. THE RIO PITA. 159 



Pedregal to the bed of the Rio Pita (about 11,300 feet). Sincho- 

 lagua rises on the eastern side of this river, and forms the cul- 

 minating point of a long ridge running northwards from Cotopaxi, 

 Avhich dies out in the basin of Chillo, and in a manner may be 

 said to extend to the east and north-east until it meets the western 

 slopes of Antisana.' 



As Sincholagua promised to give full occupation for a day, 

 it was arranged to ride as far as animals could be used ; and we 

 should have started before sunrise, only, when the right time 

 came our mules were nowhere, or, speaking more correctlv, they 

 were everywhere, as the arrieros after carefully driving them into 

 a yard where there was nothing to eat had left the entrance to it 

 unclosed, and the animals very sensibly wandered out on the 

 rhoorland, where they could browse. 



We sallied forth on Feb. 33, at 7 a.m., and after returning a 

 few miles over the Cotopaxi track turned sharply towards the 

 east, directly towards our mountain ; crossed the tiny Rio Pedregal 

 and some moorish ground, and at 8.15 forded the Rio Pita.*^ The 

 ravages of the great flood which descended from Cotopaxi on June 

 26, 1877, were fresh at that time, and it was clear that when it 

 was at its highest this stream must have been about 1100 feet 

 wide, and not less than fifty feet deep.^ When we crossed this 

 formidable river it had shrunk to a width of about two hundred 

 feet, and was no more than three feet in depth. 



Sincholagua rose abruptly on its right bank. The Carrels 

 went to the front, and in a few minutes Louis became embogged 



1 Three weeks later, from the Hacienda of Antisanilla, I saw tliat the country 

 between Antisana and Sincholaii^ua might almost be termed table-land ; liavins: 

 undulations, but no salient peaks, and an extreme elevation of 12-13,000 feet, 



"^ I did not observe the height of this point. It was probably about the same 

 as that of the Hacienda of Pedregal (11,629 feet). 



3 From the note at p. 126, it will be seen that the flood travelled the whole 

 distance from Cotopaxi to Esmeraldas at about the rate of seventeen miles per hour. 

 Owing to the steepness of the fall, the rate was no doubt much greater during the 

 earlier part of its course, when it descended into the basin of Chillo, and erased the 

 factories of the Aguirre family. 



