Finally, The Latter Chain, To Which I Have Given The Designation Of Central, After Forming The Rapids And Cataracts Of

The Amazon, between Tomependa and San Borja, turns to north-north-west, and joins the western chain, that of Caxamarca,

Or the Nevados of Pelagatos and Huaylillas, and forms the great knot of the mountains of Loxa. The mean height of this knot is only from 1000 to 1200 toises: its mild climate renders it peculiarly favourable to the growth of the cinchona trees, the finest kinds of which are found in the celebrated forest of Caxanuma and Uritusinga, between the Rio Zamora and the Cachiyacu, and between Tavacona and Guancabamba. Before the cinchona of Popayan and Santa Fe de Bogota (north latitude 2 1/2 to 5 degrees), of Huacarachuco, Huamalies and Huanuco (south latitude 9 to 11 degrees) became known, the group of the mountains of Loxa had for ages been regarded as the sole region whence the febrifuge bark of cinchona could be obtained. This group occupies the vast territory between Guancabamba, Avayaca, Ona and the ruined towns of Zamora and Loyola, between latitude 5 1/2 and 3 1/4 degrees. Some of the summits (the Paramos of Alpachaca, Saraguru, Savanilla, Gueringa, Chulucanas, Guamani, and Yamoca, which I measured) rise from 1580 to 1720 toises, but are not even sporadically covered with snow, which in this latitude falls only above 1860 to 1900 toises of absolute height. Eastward, in the direction of the Rio Santiago and the Rio de Chamaya, two tributary streams of the Amazon, the mountains lower rapidly: between San Felipe, Matara, and Jaen de Bracamoros, they are not more than 500 or 300 toises.

As we advance from the mica-slate mountain of Loxa towards the north, between the Paramos of Alpachaca and Sara (in latitude 3 degrees 15 minutes) the knot of mountains ramifies into two branches which comprehend the longitudinal valley of Cuenca. This separation continues for a length of only 12 leagues; for in latitude 2 degrees 27 minutes the two Cordilleras again re-unite in the knot of Assuy, a trachytic group, of which the table-land near Cadlud (2428 toises high) nearly enters the region of perpetual snow.

The group of the mountains of Assuy, which affords a very frequented pass of the Andes between Cuenca and Quito (latitude 2 1/2 to 0 degrees 40 minutes south) is succeeded by another division of the Cordilleras, celebrated by the labours of Bouguer and La Condamine, who placed their signals sometimes on one, sometimes on the other of the two chains. The eastern chain is that of Chimborazo (3350 toises) and Carguairazo; the western is the chain of the volcano Sangay, the Collanes, and of Llanganate. The latter is broken by the Rio Pastaza. The bottom of the longitudinal basin that bounds those two chains, from Alausi to Llactacunga, is somewhat higher than the bottom of the basin of Cuenca. North of Llactacanga, 0 degrees 40 minutes latitude, between the tops of Yliniza (2717 toises) and Cotopaxi (2950 toises), of which the former belongs to the chain of Chimborazo, and the latter to that of Sangay, is situated the knot of Chisinche; a kind of narrow dyke that closes the basin, and divides the waters between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

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