i84 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
and bread is brought to Banos from Ambato, 
Pillaro, and other towns. It is rather dear, and 
when I arrived from the forest — half-famished, and 
my thin face nearly hidden under a beard of three 
months' growth — I could easily demolish sixpenny- 
worth a day. Beef and mutton can mostly be had 
at 2jd. the pound. In fact, good solid eatables 
are not scarce, and as my troubles had not taken 
away my appetite, I assure you I have gone deep 
into them. I have now got up my strength again, 
and I don't think I was ever so stout in my life as 
I am at this moment. At first I suffered much 
from the cold. Think of the thermometer 48|-° at 
sunrise, when even at jo on the Amazon I (and 
everybody else) used to shiver with cold ; but I 
am gradually becoming inured to it. 
We are still (September 14) in the tiempo de 
las nevadas " — the snowy time on the summits of 
the Eastern Cordillera — and the snow has been 
very low down, even into the forests on the flanks 
of Tunguragua. 
Earthquakes begin to find a place in my Journal. 
We had one here on the 7th of August, a little 
before seven in the morning. I was sipping my 
chocolate when it came on — at first with a gentle 
undulatory movement, then with a brisk shaking, and 
then gradually subsiding, its whole duration being 
about three-quarters of a minute. I was trying to 
ascertain its direction and the number of vibrations 
per second (about four), when a piece of plaster fell 
from the wall at my back, whereat I snatched up 
my chocolate and walked to the door, thinking it 
quite as safe to continue my observations outside. 
Whilst the shock lasted, the ground, the trees, 
