1803] 
fill finer ; fome of a carnivorous-elephant, 
others of a foecies little different from that 
of Africa, from the valley of Timana, ‘the 
town of Ibarra, and from. Chili.” Thus, 
then, is the exiftence of that carnivorous 
monfler certain from Ohio, in the soth® 
north latitude tothe 75th® fouth latitude. 
I have {pent very agreeable hours at 
Quito. The Prefident of the Audience, 
Baron de Corondeles, has loaded us with 
kindnefs ; and for three years I have hid 
no reafon to complain for once of the 
Agents of the Spanifh Government. 
Every where I have been treated with dif- 
tinQion, and with a de elicacy which obliges 
me to an everlatting g cratitude. I have 
been very attentive to the pyramids and to 
their foundation, which I do not believe 
in the leaft deranged as to the Pierres Mo- 
laires. A generous individual, a friend 
of {ciences and of learned men, fuchas La 
Condamine, Godin, and Bouguer—name- 
ly, the Marquis of Selvalesre, at Quito, 
thinks of rebuilding them—but this leads 
me too far. * 
After having paffed the Affouay and 
Cuenca, (where they gave a bull- baiting, ) 
we tcok the route of Loxa, to complete 
our operations on the Chincona. After- 
wards we fpent a month in the province of 
Taen, of Bracomorcs, and in the Pongos 
of the Amazone, whofe banks are adorned 
with the Andira ard Bougainvillea of 
Juficu. Methinks it is\important to fix 
the longitude of Tomependa and of Chu- 
ehanga, where begins the chart of La Con- 
damine, and to conneét thefe points with 
the coat. La Condamine could only fx 
the longitude of the mouth of the river 
Napo: there were then no time-pieces ; 
fo that the longitude of thefe places ftand 
in need of feveral corre€tions. My chro- 
nometer of Louis Berthoud dces wonders, 
as I am convinced by obferving from time 
to time the firft Satellite of Jupiter ; and 
by comparing point for point the difference 
of my meridians from thofe found at the 
expedition of M. Fidalga, who, by the 
King’s order, made trigonometrical ob- 
fervations from Cuomana to Carthagena. 
From the river Amazon we paiied the 
Andes by the mines of Haalgayac, which 
produce a million of pisftres yearly, and 
where the mine of grey argentiferous cop- 
peris found at 2065 tolles, We came 
down to Truxilla by Cafcamarca, (where, 
in the palace of Atatualpa, I have drawn 
the arches of the Peruvian vaults. Con- 
tinuing by the deferts of the South Sea 
Coatt to Lima, where one half of the year 
is covered with thick vapours, I made 
a 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
149 
hafte to arrive at Lima, in order to obferve 
the Tranfit of Mercury on the oth Nov. 
1802. 
Our colleétions of plants, and the draw- 
ings I have made of the anatomy of the 
genera, agreeably to the ideas Citizen 
Jufiieu had imparted to mein the Society 
for Natural Hiftory, have greatly increaf- 
ed the riches we have found in the province 
of Quito, at Loxa, at the Amazone, and 
in the Cordillieres of Peru. We have 
found many plants feen by Jofeph Juffieu, 
fuch as the Llogue affinis quillajac, and 
others. We have a new fpecies of juli- 
enne, which ts charming ; collatix, vale 
fiflora, and loranthus, a tree fixty feet 
high. We are very rich in palms and 
gramina, on which, Citizen Bompland 
has laboured very extenfively. We now” 
have 3784 very complete delcriptions in 
Latin, and nearly one third of the plants 
in the Herbarium, which, for want of 
time, we have not been able ro defcribe. 
There is not a vegetable of which we can- 
not point out the rock it inhabits, and to’ 
what height in toifes it mounts 3 fo that 
the geography of plants will find in our 
manuferipts very correct materials. In 
order to do ftill better, Citizen Bompland 
and Ihave often defcribed the fame plant 
ippeakaly: But two-thirds of the deferip- 
tions, and more, belong to the fole aflidu- 
ity of Citizen Bompland, whofe zeal for 
the progrefs of f{cience cannot be fufh- 
ciently admired. Juffieu, Desfontaines, 
and Lamarck, have reared in him a dif- 
ciple who will go great lengths. 
We have compared our herbarium with 
thofe of M. Mutis ; we have confulted 
many books in the immenie library. of 
that great man: we are perfuaded that 
we have found feveral new genera and 
new fpecies : but much time wiil be re- 
quired to determine what is really new.— 
We mention alfoa filicious fubftance ana- 
logaus tothe tabafchin of the Eaft Indies, - 
which M. Mutis has analyled. ‘It is 
found inthe knots of .a gigantic gramen 
which is confounded with the bambeu ; 
but its flower differs from that of the 
bambufa of Schreber. J know not whe- 
ther Citizen Fourcroy has received the 
milk of the vegetable-cow, (as the In- 
dians call the tree.) It ts a milk which, 
prepared with nitrous acid, produced a 
caoutchouc with a baliamic odour, but 
which, far from being cauftic and hortful, 
as all vegetable milks are, is nourifhing 
and agreeable: we difcovered it on the 
the road of Orenoque, ih a plantation 
where the negroes drink often of it. I 
fent 
