492 



THE TKOPICAL WORLD. 



sufficient to give a pleasing variety. The coldest hour is at sunrise ; the warmest two 

 or three hours after noon. Nobody talks about the weather, for it is always pleasant ; 

 conversation begins with a blessing, and ends with a benediction. In healthfulness it 

 is unequaled. Consumption is unknown. One will hear more coughing during a 

 Sunday service in a New England church than in all Quito for a six-month. The 

 intermittent fevers so prevalent on the coast are rare. Asthma, induced measurably 

 by the rarity of the atmosphere, and typhoid fevers, are the prevalent diseases. In 

 Quito, with 40,000 inhabitants, there are but three drug-stores. Still, owing to 

 indolence, filth, and bad diet, comparatively few natives attain old age. With proper 

 habits of living, there is probably no spot on earth where the death rate would be so 

 low. The atmosphere is of unsurpassed transparency. Humboldt, with the naked 

 eye, saw the poncho of a horseman at a distance of eight miles. The sky is of a deep 

 blue, and the stars shine with great brilliancy ; the dark openings between them have 

 been compared by Humboldt to *' tubes through which we look into the remotest 

 depths of space." An adequate observatory at Quito would, perhaps, make more 

 additions to astronomical science than anywhere else on the globe ; for, in addition to 

 the constant purity of the atmosphere, it is situated on the very line of the equator, 

 so that the constellations of both hemispheres are visible. Low in the north the 

 "pointers" of the Great Bear are visible, while low in the south the Southern Cross 

 can be discernedi 



Contrary to what one would expect, the valley of Quito is almost destitute of trees. 

 There is not such a thing as a forest from one end to the other ; the trees stand singly 

 or in small clumps. The aliso, a species of birch, is the most common tree ; the 

 walnut is the best timber ; oaks and pines are not found. The variety of fruits is 

 good. There are alligator-pears, guavas, granadillas, oranges, lemons, plums and 

 quinces. Peaches and pears are found, but of poor flavor. The favorite fruit is the 

 chirimoya, which grows on a tree fifteen feet high ; the ripe fruit sometimes weighing 

 sixteen pounds. Markham calls it '* a spiritualized strawberry." Our common garden 

 vegetables, such as onions, beets, carrots, turnips, cabbages, and tomatoes, flourish. 

 The potato is indigenous here, but is inferior to ours, which have improved by trans- 

 planting. The Spaniards carried the potato to Spain from Quito, three-quarters of a 

 century before Raleigh introduced it into England from Virginia. Flowers are 

 numerous and in great variety. 



Animal life presents few species and few individuals in each. There is strictly no 

 beast of prey, no large native quadruped, and few of the smaller tribes. The orni- 

 thology of the valley is limited ; it is only when we descend into the valley of the 

 Amazon that we find the feathered tribes in their glory. The condor and the hum- 

 ming-bird, the extremes in size of the feathered tribes, are the most noticeable among 

 the mountains. Butterflies abound of all colors from emerald green to snowy white 

 Mosquitoes and flies hardly exist ; but fleas and other " small deer " find congenial 

 pasturage in the filthy garments and unkempt hair of the Indians. Serpents are so 

 unfrequent, that in three months the members of the American expedition saw only a 

 single snake ; and there are not frogs enough in the valley to furnish a respectable 

 chorus of brehke-kex-koax. There is in all the valley only a single species of fish, 

 small and of a black color. Multitudes of these have been thrown up during volcanic 

 eruptions from the bowels of the earth. 



