233 



all those volcanic peaks, which we call by par- 

 ticular names, though at more than half their 

 total height they form but one mass ; appear 

 to the eyes of the inhabitant of Quito as so 

 many distinct mountains, which tower amid a 

 plain unclothed by forests. This illusion is so 

 much the more complete, as the breaches in the 

 double ridge of the Cordilleras reach down to 

 the level of the high inhabited plains. Hence 

 the Andes have the appeafance of one chain 

 only when they are seen at a distance, from the 

 coasts of the great ocean, or from the savannahs, 

 which extend to the foot of their eastern de- 

 clivity. Placed even on the ridge of the Cor- 

 dilleras, either in the kingdom of Quito, or in 

 the province of Los Pastos, or still farther to the 

 north, in the interior of New Spain, we see only 

 a heap of scattered summits, groups of isolated 

 mountains, which detach themselves from the 

 central elevated plain ; the greater the mass of 

 the Cordilleras, the more difficult it is to con*- 

 template as a whole their structure and their 

 form. 



The study of this form, however, or, if I may 

 be allowed the expression, of this physiognomy 

 of the mountains, is singularly facilitated by the 

 direction of the lofty plains, which constitute 

 the ridge of the Andes. When we travel from 

 the city of Quito to the Paramo of Assuay, we 

 see, in a journey of thirty-seven leagues to the 



