212 THE ROAD TO BOLIVIA 



sight of the Andes, whose feet are buried in the desert lands, whose 

 breasts are wrapped in the foamy clouds, and whose peaks are crowned 

 with spotless snow, 'i'he spectacle of the Chinil)orazo rising like a 

 king among an army of Titans is surpassed by few mountain views^ 

 and the scenery during the entire distance is alwa3^s ])icturesque. 



The temperature south of Panama is much cooler than north of the 

 Isthmus, for the heat is tempered by the Humboldt Current, a cold 

 stream that comes up from the Antarctic zone to cool the atmosphere 

 of the west coast, just as the Gulf Stream brings the warm waters of 

 the tropics to moderate the climate of Europe and North America; 

 for you know that if it were not for the Gulf Stream ever^'body in 

 New England would be living like the Eskimo and potatoes would 

 not grow in Ireland. 



We crossed the equator at six o'clock, Sunday, July 2, 1899. The 

 thermometer stood at seventy-six degrees in the chart-room, on the 

 shady side of the ship, and at seventy-eight degrees in the compan- 

 ion-way leading to the dining-room. On the Fourth of July, three 

 degrees south of the equator, it was seventy-six at noon and eighty- 

 one at four o'clock. 



From the deck of the steamer in the evening, Gua^^aquil looks like 

 a little Paris. It lies along the bank of the River Guayas, and the 

 main street, called El Malecon, stretclies for two miles or more from 

 a shipyard to a fortress-croAvned hill with two decrepit old guns, 

 which are supposed to protect the harbor. p]l Malecon appears to 

 be lined with long blocks of beautiful marble and stone, and in the 

 evening is brilliantly illuminated. Here appears a row of palaces, 

 then a group of clubs, and beyond a series of blazing ball-rooms. 

 In the morning from shipboard the illusion is not dis])elled, and the 

 view is quite as imposing. The architecture is pure and graceful, 

 much of the Moorish order, and the rest on more delicate lines— long 

 arcades like those on the Rue de Rivoli or the Palais Royale of Paris, 

 and above them balconies sheltered by blinds and awnings of gay 

 canvas have an oriental look. A little railway, w'ith tiny cars drawn 

 by diminutive locomotives, carries heavy loads of merchandise, cocoa, 

 and sugar between the docks and the warehouses. 



An interesting kind of craft on Guayas River was called cabaUitos, 

 or "little horses," which consists of bundles of rushes and reeds 

 lashed together and forming a narrow float or raft that tapers off at 

 one end like a gondola. They are as difficult to handle as a canoe, 

 and are used chiefly for fishing. The caballitos look very frail and. 



