. The earth and its inhabitants ... f over a mile at the town of Guayaquil,beyond which it ramifies through a small archipelago and round the large islandof Puna at the entrance of the gulf. The Guajas catchment basin has an areaestimated by Wolf at 14,000 square miles. On the Amazonian slope the copious rains, intercepted by the dense vege- HYDROGRAPHY OP ECUADOR. 237 tation even along tolerably steep inclines, transforms its surface to a veritablesponge, like the turf bogs of the Irish mountains. Here the matted arborescentgrowths are in some districts replaced by grasses or, rather, sharp-p
. The earth and its inhabitants ... f over a mile at the town of Guayaquil,beyond which it ramifies through a small archipelago and round the large islandof Puna at the entrance of the gulf. The Guajas catchment basin has an areaestimated by Wolf at 14,000 square miles. On the Amazonian slope the copious rains, intercepted by the dense vege- HYDROGRAPHY OP ECUADOR. 237 tation even along tolerably steep inclines, transforms its surface to a veritablesponge, like the turf bogs of the Irish mountains. Here the matted arborescentgrowths are in some districts replaced by grasses or, rather, sharp-pointed reeds{chusquea aristata), forming almost impenetrable masses of an average height ofabout 10 feet. In order to make any progress the wayfarer has to brush themaside with both arms, as in the act of swimming, pressing with the whole weightof his body on these herbaceous waves. The spongy chusquea savannas peculiar to Ecuador are succeeded by rugged Fig. 92. TUNGUEAGUA AND PaSTAZA GoEGE. Scale 1 : 900,000. > ^ V -^ { if -Wi.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
