Gh, VIL S out H a m E R 1 C A. 423 



It has been before t)bferved, that aH the depen- 

 dences of thejurifdidions bf this province are fitiiated 

 b^wixt the two Cordilleras of the Ande$ ; and that 

 the air is more lefs cold according to the height of 

 the mountains, and the groufid mbre or lefs arid. 

 Thefe arid tra6ts are called Paramos, or deferts for 

 though all the Cordilleras are dry or arid, fomq of 

 them are much more fo than others for the continual 

 fnows and froft render them abfoiutely uninhabitable 

 even by the beafts j nor is there a fingle plant to be 

 found upon them. 



Some of thefe mountains, feemingly as it were 

 founded on others, rife to a mofb aftonifliing height, 

 and are covered with fnow even to their fummits. The 

 latter we lhali more particular^ treat of, as they are 

 the mod remarkable and curious obje(9:s. 



The paramo of Afuay, formed by the jun6cion of v 

 the two Cordilleras, is not of this clafs ; for, though 

 remarkable for its excefTive coldnefs and aridity, its 

 height does not exceed that of the Cordilleras in 

 general, and is much lower than that of Pichincha 

 and Corazon. Its height is the degree of the climate, 

 where a continual congelation or freezing commences ; 

 and as the mountains exceed this height, fo are they 

 perpetually covered with ice and fnow; that from a 

 determined point, above Carabucu for inftance, or the 

 furface of the fea, the congelation is found at the 

 fame height in all the mountains. From barometrical 

 experiments made at Pucaguayco, on the mountain 

 Cotopaxi, the height of the mercury was 16 inches 

 5 ^ lines ; whence we determined the height of that 

 place to be 1023 toifes above the plain of Carabucu, 

 and that of the latter above the fuperficies of the fea 

 about 1268. Thus the lieight of Pucaguayco, above 

 the furface of the fea, is 2291 toifes. The fignal 

 which we placed on this mountain was thirty or forty 

 toifes above the ice, or point of continual congela- 

 tion 5 and the perpendicular height from the' com- 



E e 4 mencement 



