449 



ley, and preferred remaining near the road 

 which led to the coast. The town of Quito 

 also is built in the narrowest and most uneven 

 part of a valley, between two fine plains, Turu- 

 pamba and Rumipamba, of which great advan- 

 tages might have been taken, had the ancient 

 Indian habitations been abandoned. 



The descent is continual from the custom- 

 house of the Pastora, by the square of Trinidad 

 and the Plaza Major, to Santa Rosalia, and the 

 Rio Guayra. I found by barometrical mea- 

 surements, that the custom-house was thirty 

 toises above the square of Trinidad, near which 

 I made my astronomical observations ; this 

 square, eight toises higher than the pavement 

 of the cathedral in the great square ; and the 

 great square, thirty-two toises above the Rio 

 Guayra at la Noria. This declivity of the 

 ground does not prevent carriages from going 

 about the town ; but the inhabitants make 

 little use of them. Three small rivers, descend, 

 ing from the mountains, the Anauco, the Ca- 

 tuche, and the Caraguata, cross the town from 

 north to south ; their banks are very high ; 

 and, with the dried up ravins which join them 

 furrowing the ground, remind the traveller of 

 the famous Guaicos of Quito # , only being on 

 a smaller scale. The water drunk at Caraccas 



* See chap, iv, vol. ii, p. 228. 

 VOL. III. 2 G 



