THE VALLEY OF QUITO. 



489 



by divine architects in a single night. Cieza de Leon, one of the companions of 

 Pizarro, writes of them : '* What most surprised me was that the enormous gateways 

 were formed on other great masses of stone, some of which were thirty feet long, fifteen 

 wide, and six thick. I can not conceive with what tools or instruments those stones 

 were hewn out, for they must have been vastly larger than we now see them. It is 

 supposed that some of these structures were built long before the dominion of the 

 Incas ; and I have heard the Indians affirm that these sovereigns constructed their 

 great building at Cuzco after the plans of the walls of Tihuanico." The most remark- 

 able thing in these ruins are the great doorways of a single block of stone. The 

 largest of these is ten feet high and thirteen broad, the opening cut through it being 

 six feet four inches high, and three feet two inches wide. The whole neighborhood is 

 strewn with immense blocks of stone elaborately wrought, equalling if not surpassing 

 in size any known to exist in Egypt, India, or any other part of the world. Some of 

 these are thirty feet long, eighteen broad, and six thick. 



All these gigantic remains of a past civilization are found in the lofty table land of 

 the Puna. When these come to be fully described and illustrated, it will be seen 

 that here, in a climate so cold that hardly a vegetable will grow which man can use for 

 food, were planted the seeds of a civilization as remarkable as any which ever existed. 

 More wonderful, perhaps, than these great architectural works were the great military 

 roads constructed by the Incas. One reached from Cuzco down to the ocean. The 

 other stretched from the capital, along the very crest of the Cordilleras, and down 

 their ravines, to Quito, 1,200 miles distant. The length of these great roads, including 

 branches, was not less than 3,000 miles. Modern travelers compare them with the 

 best in the world. They were from 18 to 25 feet broad, paved with immense blocks 

 of stone, sometimes covered with asphaltum. In ascending steep mountains, broad 

 steps were cut in the rock ; ravines were filled with heavy embankments flanked with 

 parapets, and, wherever the climate permitted, lined with shade trees and shrubs, with 

 houses at regular distances for the accommodation of travelers, and especially serving 

 as post stations. For there was a regular postal service by which the Incas could send 

 messages from one extremity of their dominions to the other. This service was per- 

 formed by runners ; for, as has been said, the Peruvians had no beasts of burden 

 stronger or swifter than the llama. These messengers were trained to great speed. 

 On approaching a station they gave a loud shout to warn the next courier of their 

 approach, so that he might be ready to take the message or parcel without delay. In 

 this manner it is said that dispatches were sent at the rate of 150 miles a day, a speed 

 unequaled until within our own times, when the railway and the telegraph have 

 brought the ends of the world almost together. 



Lying lower than the desolate Puna, but more than twice as high as the loftiest 

 summits of Great Britain, and higher by half than the topmost peaks in North 

 America east of the Rocky Mountains, is a series of valleys and table lands which 

 form a marked feature in the Tropical World. The principal of these, going northward 

 from the equator, are those of Quito in Equador, Bogota in Columbia, and Mexico. 



The valley of Quito, with a breadth of thirty miles, is two hundred miles in length 

 from north to south, the equator running upon its northern border. It is in reality a 

 great table-land occupying the summit of the Cordilleras, only overtopped and sur- 



