437 



In this province, a little beyond the Villa of 

 Ibarra, between the snowy summits of Coto- 

 cache and Imbabura, the two Cordilleras of 

 Quito join, and form one mass, extending to 

 Meneses and Voisaco, from 0° 21' nor. lat. to 1° 

 13\ I call this mass, on which the volcanoes of 

 Cumbal and Chiles rise, the knot of the moun- 

 tains of Los Pastos, on account of the name of 

 the province that forms the center. The vol- 

 cano of Pasto, of which the last eruption took 

 place in the year 1727, is on the south of Yenoi, 

 near the northern limit of this groupe, of which 

 the inhabited table-lands are more than 1600 

 toises above the level of the Ocean. It is the Thi- 

 bet of the equinoxial regions of the New World. 



On the north of the town of Pasto (north la- 

 titude 1° 13'; long. 79° 4 V), the Andes again 

 divide into two branches, and surround the 

 table-land of Mamendoy and Almaguer. The 

 eastern Cordillera contains the Sienega of Se- 

 bondoy (an alpine lake that gives birth to the 

 Putumayo), the sources of the Jupuraor Caqueta, 

 and the Paramos of Aponte and Iscanse. The 

 western Cordillera, that of Mamacondy, . called 

 in the country Cordillera de la Costa, on account 

 of its proximity to the shore of the South-Sea, 

 is broken by the great Rio de Patias, which re- 

 ceives the Guativa, the Guachicon, and the 

 Quilquase. The table-land or intermediary 

 basin has great inequalities ; it is partly filled 



