196 NOTES OF A BOTANIST chap, xix 
no chance of obtaining a supper and a bed, and 
we had no alternative but to hold on our way to 
Riobamba. Having crossed the plaza, we entered a 
dark narrow street, some way down which we heard 
several men uttering angry shouts. On nearing 
them, my horse reared straight up against the 
wall — alarmed at the sight of the dead bull the 
men were dragging along, and which the gloom 
had hindered me from seeing. I gave him the 
lash and he cleared the obstruction at a bound, 
but his rider narrowly escaped being spilt. Beyond 
San Andres we had stony descents and ascents ; 
a drizzling rain came on, which made the night 
more dark, and we had to leave it entirely to the 
horses to pick out the way. As I returned by the 
same route, with daylight, I was horrified to see 
that for a space of nearly two miles we had skirted 
the edge of a precipice, where a single false step 
would have hurled us to destruction. 
Riobamba has about as many inhabitants as 
Ambato (8000), but it covers more ground, because 
the streets are wider ; and it is less neatly built. 
It is of equally modern date, and stands three 
leagues away to eastward of the ruins of ancient 
Riobamba (overthrown in 1797) — in the midst of 
a flat sandy desert, where the winds have full play, 
and raise up whirls of sand that look at a distance 
like waterspouts at sea. An open aqueduct from 
the paramos of Chimborazo, 15 miles away, supplies 
the town with water, which by the tim.e it reaches 
Riobamba has got so fouled as to be undrinkable 
until it has been passed through a filtering -jar 
(called an estiladera ") that answers its object 
admirably. 
