. The earth and its inhabitants ... volcano. Joined by theToachi, it forms the Chinto (Perucho or Esmeraldas, Emerald Hiver), anavigable stream, but little utilised, owing to the absence of riverine popula- 236 SOUTH AMEEICA—THE ANDES EEGIONS. tions. According to Teodoro Wolf, the Rio Esmeraldas has a drainage area of8,5U0 square miles. A few small coast-streams follow southwards as far as the deep inlet at thehead of which debouches the copious Rio Guayas, which gives its name to theport of Guayaquil. The Babahoyo, its chief headstream, rises in the Pacificcoast ran ere, and, after collecting
. The earth and its inhabitants ... volcano. Joined by theToachi, it forms the Chinto (Perucho or Esmeraldas, Emerald Hiver), anavigable stream, but little utilised, owing to the absence of riverine popula- 236 SOUTH AMEEICA—THE ANDES EEGIONS. tions. According to Teodoro Wolf, the Rio Esmeraldas has a drainage area of8,5U0 square miles. A few small coast-streams follow southwards as far as the deep inlet at thehead of which debouches the copious Rio Guayas, which gives its name to theport of Guayaquil. The Babahoyo, its chief headstream, rises in the Pacificcoast ran ere, and, after collecting numerous tributaries on both sides, assumes theproportions of a considerable river below the so-called bodegas, or stores, at thelandino--stao-es, where travellers start for the ascent of the plateau. Even beforeits junction with the Yaguachi or Chimbo, which collects the running waters fromthe Chimbo heights, fed by the Chimborazo and Chanchan glaciers, the Buba- Fig. 91.—Confluence of the Guayaquil 1: 1,000, West or Greenwich 79°20 25 Miles. hoyo is a large stream, 2,000 feet wide from bank to bank. Lower down it isjoined on its right side by the Rio Daule, which, after emerging from an exten-sive forest region, winds through alow-lying plain heiween pajonales (savannas)and tenibladeras (quagmires), expanding to a width of over half a mile as itenters the Guayaquil estuary. This marine inlet, which is here called the RioGuayas, rapidly broadens out to a width of 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 arborescentgrowth
Size: 1878px × 1331px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
