232 



forms the fore ground of the dra wing of which 

 we here give the description, is a part of this 

 elevated plain, which separates the western 

 from the eastern ridge of the Andes of Quito. 

 In these plains the population of this marvels 

 lous country is concentrated ; towns are there 

 built, which contain from thirty to fifty thousand 

 inhabitants. When we have lived for some 

 months on this elevated spot, where the baro- 

 meter keeps at twenty inches high, we feel 

 the irresistible influence of an extraordinary- 

 illusion : we forget by degrees, that every thing 

 which surrounds the observer ; those villages 

 which proclaim the industry of a mountainous 

 people; those pastures, covered at the same 

 time with herds of lamas, and flocks of Euro- 

 pean sheep ; those orchards bounded by hedges 

 of duranta and barnadesia ; those fields cultivat- 

 ed with care^ and promising the richest harvests ; 

 hang as it were suspended in the lofty regions 

 of the atmosphere : we scarcely recollect, that 

 the soil we inhabit is more elevated above the 

 neighbouring coasts of the Pacific Ocean, than 

 the summit of Canigou above the basin of the 

 Mediterranean. 



Considering the ridge of the Cordilleras as 

 a vast plain curtained by distant mountains, 

 we accustom ourselves to look on the inequali- 

 ties of the summit of the Andes as so many iso- 

 lated tops. Pichincha, Cayambe, Cotopaxi, 



