201 
RAFT 
OF THE 
RIVER OF GUAYAQUIL. 
PLATE LXIII. 
This drawing is interesting under a double point 
of view, as exhibiting a collection of the fruits of 
the equinoxial zone, and showing the form of 
those large rafts (halzas J, which the Peruvians 
have used from the most remote times on the 
coasts of the South Sea, and at the mouth of the 
river of Guayaquil. The raft, loaded with fruits, 
is sketched at the moment when it is anchoring 
in the river. Toward the head are seen pine- 
apples, the pearshaped fruit of the laurus persea 
[the alligator pear], the berries of the theophrasta 
longifolia, bunches of plantains, flowers of the 
passiflora and lecythis, shaded by leaves of the 
heliconia and the cocoa tree. The rafts employed 
either for fishing or the conveyance of merchan- 
dize are from sixteen to twenty-five metres in 
