494 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
that the actual possessor was a gentleman of 
Ambato, Senor Salvador Ortega, to whom I made 
application for it, and he had the kindness to 
have it brought immediately from Quito, where 
it was deposited, and placed in my hands ; I am 
therefore indebted to that gentleman's kindness 
for the pleasure of being able to lay the accom- 
panying copy of the map before the Geographical 
Society. 
The original map is formed of eight small sheets 
of paper of rather unequal size (those of my copy 
exactly correspond to them), pasted on to a piece of 
coarse calico, the whole size being 3 feet loj inches 
by 2 feet 9 inches. It is very neatly painted with a 
fine pencil in Indian ink — the roads and roofs of 
houses red — but it has been so roughly used that it 
is now much dilapidated, and the names, though 
originally very distinctly written, are in many cases 
scarcely decipherable : in making them out I have 
availed myself of the aid of persons familiar with 
the localities and with the Quichua language. The 
.attempt to combine a vertical with a horizontal 
projection of the natural features of the country 
has produced some distortion and dislocation, and 
though the actual outline of the mountains is in- 
tended to be represented, the heights are much 
-exaggerated, and consequently the declivities too 
steep. Thus the apical angle of the cone of 
Cotopaxi (as I have determined it by actual 
measurement) is 121°, and the slope (inclination 
of its surface to the horizon) 29^° ; while on 
Guzman's map the slope is 6g^\ so that the 
inclination is only three -sevenths of what he has 
represented it, and we may assume a correspond- 
