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all those volcanic peaks, which we call by par- 
ticular names, though at more than half their 
total height they form but one mass ; appear 
to the eyes of the inhabitant of Quito as so 
many distinct mountains, which tower amid a 
plain unclothed by forests. This illusion is so 
much the more complete, as the breaches in the 
double ridge of the Cordilleras reach down to 
the level of the high inhabited plains. Hence 
the Andes have the appearance of one chain 
only when they are seen at a distance, from the 
coasts of the great ocean, or from the savannahs, 
which extend to the foot of their eastern de- 
clivity. Placed even on the ridge of the Cor- 
dilleras, either in the kingdom of Quito, or in 
the province of Los Pastos, or still farther to the 
north, in the interior of New Spain, we see only 
a heap of scattered summits, groups of isolated 
mountains, which detach themselves from the 
central elevated plain ; the greater the mass of 
the Cordilleras, the more difficult it is to con- 
template as a whole their structure and their 
form. 
The study of this form, however, or, if I may 
be allowed the expression, of this physiognomy 
of the mountains, is singularly facilitated by the 
direction of the lofty plains, which constitute 
the ridge of the Andes. When we travel from 
the city of Quito to the Paramo of Assuay, we 
see, in a journey of thirty-seven leagues to the 
