CHAP. XV. 



THE PYRAMIDS OF QUITO. 



289 



measure was a bar of iron, and it has ever since been known as 

 ^tlie toise of Peru/ Guyot, in his valuable work Tables Meteoro- 

 logical and Physical, in a discussion of the various measures of 

 length most generally used, says that ''it may almost be called 

 the only common standard, to which all the others are referred for 

 comparison''; ''the legal metre is a legalised part of the toise of 

 Peru, and this last remains the primitive standard/' 



PLAN, SECTION, AND ELEVATION OF THE PYRAMIDS 

 ERECTED BY THE ACADEMICIANS. 



rFrom Histoire des Pyramides de Quito.) 



As the measurement of the first base-line (upon which all the 

 rest of the work depended) was intended to be, and apparently 

 was, conducted with the greatest possible care, it was natural that 

 the Academicians desired that its length should be preserved, and 

 that the two ends should be marked by monuments of a permanent 

 nature. This matter had, in fact, been discussed and settled before 

 the observers left Paris, and upon the spot La Oondamine specially 



2P 



