. Around and about South America. , shiningserenely in their dazzling whiteness. After reaching thewestern rim of the valley, we began to descend over a badroad, which soon became worse. It had apparently at onetime been paved with huge blocks of stone, but the severewinter rains and incessant travel of man and beast had jum-bled these into inconceivable confusion. Over them and be-tween them and around them we were compelled slowly tofind our way. Once or twice the road was so steep and slip-pery that we had to dismount and let our mules slide downinclines a couple of hundred feet in length.
. Around and about South America. , shiningserenely in their dazzling whiteness. After reaching thewestern rim of the valley, we began to descend over a badroad, which soon became worse. It had apparently at onetime been paved with huge blocks of stone, but the severewinter rains and incessant travel of man and beast had jum-bled these into inconceivable confusion. Over them and be-tween them and around them we were compelled slowly tofind our way. Once or twice the road was so steep and slip-pery that we had to dismount and let our mules slide downinclines a couple of hundred feet in length. Still, down,down we went, on foot or on mule-back, over and around theunending spurs, and into and out of the valleys, until darknesscame on, and after all we had not reached our destination. Wenevertheless proceeded, our guide leading at what seemed tome in the obscurity to be a very dangerous pace. We had hadmost beautiful views all the day, and would doubtless haveseen the Pacific, but for the clouds which lay before us like a. BREAKFASTING IN AN ACTIVE VOLCANO. 43 vast ocean of bright white foam. We slept for the night ina miserable village inn, and went on again at daylight. Wehad now once more reached the tropics, had left far behindthe temperate table-land of central Ecuador. We had ar-rived in the land of hammocks—those abodes of mental aswell as physical inertia. We passed through immense plan-tations of coffee, cacao, oranges, bananas, and of the most striking characteristics of the small Republicof Ecuador is the abruptness with which one passes from thewheat and barley fields of the interior to the palms andcocoanuts of the coast. The landscape quickly changes fromthat of a New England farm to an East Indian jungle. Theclimate of Quito is cool, uniform, and healthy for Europeansettlers, but Guayaquil is hot, moist, and insalubrious. Westopped frequently, at the farm-houses, for drinks, now ofchicha, a native beer somewhat like our lager in taste and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisheretcetc, bookyear189
