4 
hills, which the ancient inhabitants of this couri*^ 
try raised for the interment of the sovereign, or 
some other distinguished personage. It is alleged^ 
in favour of this opinion, that the Panecillo is 
wholly composed of volcanic rubbish ; and that 
% 
the same pumice stone, which surrounds its ba- 
sis, is found also on its summit. 
This reason might appear little conclusive in 
the eyes of a geologist ; for the back of the 
neighbouring mountain of Tiopullo, which is 
much higher than the Panecillo, is covered also 
with great heaps of pumice stone, probably ow- 
ing to ancient eruptions of Cotopaxi and Ilinissa. 
We cannot doubt, but that in both Americas, 
as well as in the north of Asia, and on the banks 
of the Boristhenes, mounds raised by men, and 
real tumuli of an extraordinary height, are to be 
seen. Those which are found amid the ruins of 
the ancient town of Mansiche, in Peru, are not 
much lower than the sugar-loaf of Callo. It is 
nevertheless possible, and this opinion even ap- 
pears to me the most probable, that the latter is 
a volcanic hillock, isolated on the vast plain of 
Llactacunga, and to which the natives have gi- 
ven a more regular form. Ulloa, whose authority 
jS of great weight, seems to have adopted the 
opinion of the natives : he even thinks, that the 
Panecillo is a military monument ; and that it 
served as a watch tower, to discover what passed 
the country, and to ensure the prince’s safety 
