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NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. XIX 
evening I made them into bundles — putting alter- 
nate layers of Musci and Hepaticae, and hung them 
up to " smoke " through the night, along with my 
soaked garments. Even gathered in this hasty 
v/ay, I have a great many fine things ; of Hookeria 
alone there seem to be not fewer than fifteen 
species. I saw also great numbers of new ferns, 
but could not take them, save two or three of the 
minute ones that I had not seen elsewhere. 
Having perforce to remain at Banos till my 
goods were got out from the Topo, and finding it 
favourably situated for exploring Mount Tungu- 
ragua, which, like much ground in the neighbour- 
hood, scarcely any botanist has visited, I determined 
to make it my station for some months. It is a 
poor little place, much subject to earthquakes and 
violent winds, and not abundant in provisions. 
Bread is brought from Ambato and other places 
where the climate is more suitable for the growth 
of wheat. Bafios is some 5500 feet above the sea 
according to my barometer. Its position much 
reminds me of that of Argelez in the Basses- 
Pyrenees, though the valley is narrower and the 
schistose grassy hills that bound it seem much 
higher than those of Argelez. In the gorge of the 
Pastasa we have still oranges and the sugar-cane, 
and on the hills that rise from it barley, beans, and 
potatoes. The volcanic cone of Tunguragua is 
perhaps the highest in the world ; it is quite 
isolated from the rest of the Cordillera, and on its 
eastern side is joined by a narrow col to the 
wooded hills which subside into the great Amazonian 
plain ; taken from the valley of Banos, its height 
cannot be much less than 15,000 feet. It has 
