292 



TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. xv. 



very great stone which La Condamine had taken so much trouble 

 to procure, whose loss he had so pathetically lamented. 



The pyramid (of Oyambara or Oyambourou) which now 

 approximately marks the southern end of the base is about 1000 



"^^^^^ 



THE PYRAMID OF OYAMBARO, IN 1880. 



feet distant from the place where 

 the stone reposes, situated in a 

 field of maize ; and is neither the 



original pyramid nor the one which was erected to replace it. 

 I was informed on the spot that it was put up about thirty 

 years earlier by a President of Ecuador, who so little appreciated 

 the purpose for which it was originally designed that he moved it 

 some hundreds of feet on one side, in order, he said, that it might 

 he better seen. The traditional site of the original pyramids of 

 Oyambourou was pointed out to me, but I found no trace of them. 



The pyramid at the northern end of the base (Pyramid of 

 Carabourou) was just visible as a speck of light, and on the next 

 day I went to it, and found the structure there in just such a 

 position as the original one is said to have occupied, at the very 

 edge of the great ravine of G-uallabamba, though whether it stands 

 on the original site I am quite unable to say. The labours of the 



