XIX IN THE ECUADOREAN ANDES 185 
and the houses oscillated to and fro, in a way to 
quite upset one's notions of the earth's stability. 
I cannot walk abroad in any direction without 
seeing evidence of former earthquakes, far more 
violent than this one, and some of them of not very 
ancient date. 
A short time after this earthquake, I was talking 
about it to a neighbour, when he remarked, ''It is 
seven years ago since we had an earthquake that 
did any damage, and then only a single house was 
destroyed, and it stood exactly where yours does, 
which was built on its ruins." This was startling, 
but I was reassured when I learnt that the house 
overthrown was built of adobes, and therefore 
easily thrown down, whereas the new one was of 
wooden pillars and wattles, the interspace being 
filled with earth, and both inside and outside 
plastered and whitewashed ; and that the pillars, 
being of ''helechos" (trunks of tree-ferns), were 
so tough as to sway backwards and forwards 
without ever breaking. All the other houses in 
the village had the uprights also of tree-fern. 
[On January 16, 1858, Spruce removed to the 
town of Ambato, situated on the highroad from 
Guayaquil to Quito, and about midway between 
the two cities. This town continued to be his 
head-quarters for two and half years, when he finally 
quitted the higher Andes. 
A series of extracts (made by Spruce himself) 
from letters to his friend Teasdale carry on the 
narrative of his more general observations and 
experiences during the year 1858. In this period 
he visited Riobamba and Quito, as well as Banos, 
several times, and made numerous excursions to 
