PARTICULARS OF SOUTH AMERICA. , ^4^ 



of the valley of Patia, where, in a iingle night, a fever may 

 be caught, that will lafl: three or four months, we pafled the 

 fumrait of the Cordillera, traverfing frightful precipices. 



We fpent our Chriftmas at Pafto, a little town at the foot Town of Pafio, 

 of a tremendous volcano, where we were entertained with 

 great hofpitality. The roads leading to and from it are the 

 mod (hocking in the world. Thick forefts, between marfbes, 

 in which the mules fink up to their bellies; and gullies fo 

 deep arid narrow, that we feemed entering the galleries of a 

 mine. 



The whole province of Pafto, including the erivirors of The province a 

 Guachucal andTuqueres, is a frozen plain, nearly beyond Ihe^""" P'^'"* 

 point where vegetation can fubfifl, and furrounded by vol- 

 canos and fulphur - pits^i continually emitting volumes of 

 fmoke. The wretched inhabitants of thefe deferts have no The people Jive 

 food but potatoes : and if thefe fail, as they did lad year, they"" potatoes, 

 go to the mountains to eat the flem of a little tree, called 

 admpalla (pourrelia pitcarnia) ; but the bears of the Andes, an^l the ftems of 

 as they too feed on it, often difpute it with them. On the^g^^^j^"^ '' '* ^' " 

 riorth of the volcano of Pafto, 1 difcovered, in the little In. 

 dian village of Voii'aco, 1900 yards above the level of the 

 fea, a red porphyry, with bafe of argil, enclofing vitreous Red porphyry 

 feldfpar, and hornblende, that has all the properties of the ^'^^ tiiftintt 

 ferpentinc of the Fichtelgehirgc. This porphyry has very 

 diftin6lly marked poles, but no attraiStive power. Near the 

 town of Ibarra, we nearly efcaped being drowned by a very 

 fudden fwell of the water, accompanied with fhocks of an 

 earthquake. 



We reached Quito on the 6th of January 1802. It is a Quito, 

 handfome city ; but the iky is commonly clouded and gloomy. 

 The neighbouring mountains exhibit little verdure, and the 

 cold is very confiderable. The great earthquake on the 4th Earthquake of 

 of February 1797, which changed ihe face of the whole ^^^^* 

 |)rovince, and in one indant deflroyed thirty-five or forty 

 thoufaind perfons, has fo altered the temperature of the air, ^'tered the 

 that the thermometer is n'ow^ commonly 41'^- to 54°, and fel- "" ^•' ^ '^° 

 dom( rifes to 68^ or 70°, whereas Bouguer obferved it con- 

 ftantly at 66° or 68°. Since this calaftrophe, earthquakes 

 are continually recurring ; and fuch thocks ! it is probable, 

 that all the higher ground is one vaft volcano. What are The heights on? 

 cSUed the mountains of Gotopoxi and Pichincha, are but little ^^^ volcano. 

 R 2 Xummits, 



