240 
PERUVIAN MONUMENT 
AT 
•CANNAR. 
PLATE XVII. 
The lofty plains, that stretch along the back 
of the Cordilleras from the equator to the third 
degree of south latitude, end where a mass of 
mountains rises from four thousand five hundred - 
to four thousand eight hundred metres of height, 
which like an enormous dyke unites the eastern 
to the western ridge of the Andes of Quito. 
This group of mountains, in which porphyry 
covers mica-slate and other rocks of primitive 
formation, is known by the name of the Paramo 
del Assuay. We were obliged to cross it, in 
order to go from Riobamba to Cuenca, and to 
visit those beautiful forests of Loxa, which are so 
celebrated for their fruitfulness in bark The 
Cinchona, 
