Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Alto De Chisinche Is Only 80 Toises
Above The Surrounding Table-Lands.
The waters of its northern
declivity form the Rio de San Pedro, which, joining the Rio Pita,
throws itself into the Gualabamba, or Rio de las Esmeraldas.
The
waters of the southern declivity, called Cerro de Tiopullo, run into
the Rio San Felipe and the Pastaza, a tributary stream of the Amazon.
The bipartition of the Cordilleras re-commences and continues from 0
degrees 40 minutes latitude south to 0 degrees 20 minutes latitude
north; that is, as far as the volcano of Imbabura near the villa of
Ibarra. The eastern Cordillera presents the snowy summits of Antisana
(2992 toises), of Guamani, Cayambe (3070 toises) and of Imbabura; the
western Cordillera, those of Corazon, Atacazo, Pichinca (2491 toises)
and Catocache (2570 toises). Between these two chains, which may be
regarded as the classic soil of the astronomy of the 18th century, is
a valley, part of which is again divided longitudinally by the hills
of Ichimbio and Poignasi. The table-lands of Puembo and Chillo are
situated eastward of those hills; and those of Quito, Inaquito and
Turubamba lie westward. The equator crosses the summit of the Nevado
de Cayambe and the valley of Quito, in the village of San Antonio de
Lulumbamba. When we consider the small mass of the knot of Assuy, and
above all, of that of Chisinche, we are inclined to regard the three
basins of Cuenca, Hambato and Quito as one valley (from the Paramo de
Sarar to the Villa de Ibarra) 73 sea leagues long, from 4 to 5 leagues
broad, having a general direction north 8 degrees east, and divided by
two transverse dykes one between Alausi and Cuenca (2 degrees 27
minutes south latitude), and the other between Machache and Tambilbo
(0 degrees 40 minutes). Nowhere in the Cordillera of the Andes are
there more colossal mountains heaped together than on the east and
west of this vast basin of the province of Quito, one degree and a
half south, and a quarter of a degree north of the equator. This basin
which, next to the basin of Titicaca, is the centre of the most
ancient native civilization, touches, southward, the knot of the
mountains of Loxa, and northward the tableland of the province of Los
Pastos.
In this province, a little beyond the villa of Ibarra, between the
snowy summits of Cotocache and Imbabura, the two Cordilleras of Quito
unite, and form one mass, extending to Meneses and Voisaco, from 0
degrees 21 minutes north latitude to 1 degree 13 minutes. I call this
mass, on which are situated the volcanoes of Cumbal and Chiles, the
knot of the mountains of Los Pastos, from the name of the province
that forms the centre. The volcano of Pasto, the last eruption of
which took place in the year 1727, is on the south of Yenoi, near the
northern limit of this group, of which the inhabited table-lands are
more than 1600 toises above sea-level.
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