The earth and its inhabitants .. . ?^i«iimM,.yM« TOPOGEAPHPY OF ECUADOR. 251 extremity of the city- Here is seen the famous stone on which La Condamine andhis associates commemorated, by an inscrijition, their operations connected withthe measurement of an arc of the terrestrial meridian. But the base line whichthey had traced with so much care north-east of the city, and which enabled themto measure three degrees of the meridian between Ibarra and Cuenca, can no longerbe identified. Either through some narrow patriotic feeling of jealousy or throughbarbarous ignorance, the Government ordered
The earth and its inhabitants .. . ?^i«iimM,.yM« TOPOGEAPHPY OF ECUADOR. 251 extremity of the city- Here is seen the famous stone on which La Condamine andhis associates commemorated, by an inscrijition, their operations connected withthe measurement of an arc of the terrestrial meridian. But the base line whichthey had traced with so much care north-east of the city, and which enabled themto measure three degrees of the meridian between Ibarra and Cuenca, can no longerbe identified. Either through some narrow patriotic feeling of jealousy or throughbarbarous ignorance, the Government ordered the two terminal pyramids to berazed which La Condamine had erected, one near the town of Pifo, between Coto-paxi and Cayambe, the other on the edge of the Guallabamba gorge. The first,that of Oyambaro, has been reconstructed since the War of Independence, butnot on the old site and only as a commemorative monument; the second (Caraburo) Fig. 97.—Quito and its I; 71) West o\- Greenwich 78 may possibly occupy its original position, though Whymper was unable to deter-mine the point. Some blocks in the neighbourhood of (juito recall the oldfortresses of the Incas and of their Cara predecessors. A carriage-road, often ploughed up by the rains, and always threatened by theavalanches of mud, connects Quito with Amhafo. But Quito still lacks easy com-munication with the nearest seaport, at the mouth of the Rio Esmeraldas. Theroad begun by Maldonado in 1735 was never completed, though another has beenbegun farther south, to run through AIockj, along the base of Corazon and by theRio Toachi valley. The port of Esmcralda-s itself is obstructed by a bar, andQuito remains without any access to the sea except by the extremely difficultGuayaquil route, twice as long as that of Esmeraldas. The emeralds which excitedthe cupidity of Pizarro are no longer exported from this place ; one of the stones 252 SOUTH AMERICA—THE ANDES BEOIONS. formerly worshipped by the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
