Ch. L SOIJTH AMERICA, igg 



feet, and without any rail ; fo that one falfe ftep pre- 

 cipitates the mule into the torrent, where it is ine- 

 vitably loft *, accidents, according to the report of our 

 guides, not uncommon. Thefe bridges, by the rot- 

 ting of the wood under water, are annually repaired 

 towards winter, the only feafon when they are ufed 5 

 the rivers, during the fummer, being fordable. 



When a perlon of diftindion, as a prefident, a 

 biftiop, ScCi is on a journey from Caracol or Baba- 

 hoyo, the corregidor of Guaranda difpatches Indians 

 for building cottages at the ufual refting-places, like 

 that we found at Tari2;ao;ua; and thefe being; left 

 ftanding, ferve afterwards for other paiTengers, till the 

 rains deftroy them. When thefe are thrown down, 

 travellers muft content themfdves with the huts, 

 which their Indian guides build with wonderful dif- 

 patchi 



At Tarigagua, on the lyth, at fix in the morning,' 

 the thermometer ftood at 1014I. And having been 

 for fome time accuftomed to hot climates, we now 

 fenfibly felt the cold. Ir is remarkable, that we here 

 often fee inftances of the effeds of tvv'o oppofite tem- 

 peratures, in two perfons happening to meet, one of 

 them coming from Guayaquil, and the other from the 

 mountains: the latter finding the heat fo great, that 

 he is fcarce able to bear any cloaths while the former 

 wraps himfeif up in all the garments he can procure. 

 The one is fo delighted v/ith the warmth of the water 

 of the river, that he bathes in it 5 the other thinks it fo 

 cold, that he avoids being (pattered by it. Nor is the 

 cafe very different even in the fame perfon, who, af- 

 ter a journey to the mountains, is returning to Guaya- 

 quil, or vice verfa. provided the journey and return be 

 made at the fame feafon of the year. This fenfible 

 difference proceeds only from the change naturally 

 felt at leaving a climate to which one has been ac- 

 cuftomed, and coming into anothe'r of an oppoOte 

 temperature 5 and thus two perfons, one ufed to a 



O 4 cold 



