The Andes and the Amazon; Or, Across the Continent of South America

On the east of the city of Quito is a beautiful and extensive plain, so level that it is literally a _table-land_. It is the classic ground of the astronomy of the eighteenth ce...

Quito, with a position unparalleled for astronomical purposes, has no observatory. The largest telescope in the city is about five feet long, but the astute professor of natural...

Quitonians claim for their capital eighty thousand inhabitants; but when we consider that one fourth of the city is covered with ecclesiastical buildings, and that the dwelling-...

Near the silver mines of Cerro Pasco, in the little Lake of Lauricocha, just below the limit of perpetual winter, rises the "King of Waters."[148] For the first five hundred mil...

Our Tambo.--Ascending the Andes.--Camino Real.--Magnificent Views.--Guaranda.--Cinchona.--The Summit.--Chimborazo.--Over the Andes.--Chuquipoyo the Wretched.--Ambato.--A Stupid...

Late in the evening of the 19th of July, 1867, the steamer "Favorita" dropped anchor in front of the city of Guayaquil. The first view awakened visions of Oriental splendor. Bef...

We left Pebas for Tabatinga in the Peruvian steamer "Morona," Captain Raygado. Going up to Jerusalem by railroad, or ascending the Nile by a screw whisking the sacred waters, is...

Coming up from Peru through the cinchona forests of Loja, and over the barren hills of Assuay, the traveler reaches Riobamba, seated on the threshold of magnificence--like Damas...

Eight hours' hard travel from Pachamama brought us to Baeza. This "Antigua Ciudad," as Villavicencio calls it, was founded in 1552 by Don Egilio Ramirez Dávalos, and named after...

On the eastern slope of the Ecuadorian Andes, between the Marañon and its tributary the Putumayo, lies the Napo country. This almost unknown region has the area of New York and...

From the Atlantic shore to the foot of the Andes, and from the Orinoco to the Paraguay, stretches the great Valley of the Amazon. In this vast area the United States might be pa...

Three cycles ago an island rose from the sea where now expands the vast continent of South America. It was the culminating point of the highlands of Guiana. For ages this granit...

Sea-Cows and Turtles' Eggs.--The Forest.--Peccaries.--Indian Tribes on the Lower Napo.--Anacondas and Howling Monkeys.--Insect Pests.--Battle with Ants.--Barometric Anomaly.--Fi...

Down the Amazon.--Serpa.--Villa Nova.--Obidos.--Santarem.--A Colony of Southerners.--Monte Alégre.--Porto do Moz.--Leaving the Amazon.--Breves.--Pará River.--The City of Pará.--...

The forest of the Amazon is less full of life than the river. Beasts, birds, and reptiles are exceedingly scarce; still there is, in fact, a great variety, but they are widely s...

The republic of Ecuador looks like a wedge driven into the continent between the Marañon and the Putumayo. It has 1200 miles of Pacific coast, and an area of about two hundred t...

We embarked November 20th on our voyage down the river. It is no easy matter to hire or cajole the Indians for any service. Out of feast-time they are out of town, and during th...

The Valley of Quito has about the same size and shape as the basin of Salt Lake, but it is five thousand feet higher.[92] The two cordilleras inclosing it are tied by the mounta...

Near the once busy city of Otovalo, utterly destroyed in the late earthquake, the two Cordilleras join, and, turning to the right, we go down the eastern range. The first in ord...

We come now to the genus Homo. Man makes a very insignificant figure in the vast solitudes of the Amazon. Between Manáos and Pará, the most densely-peopled part of the valley, t...

Forty miles east-southeast of Quito, on the eastern slope of the Eastern Cordillera, and on the western edge of the great forest, is the Indian village of Papallacta. From the c...

Quito is better known than Ecuador. Its primeval history, however, is lost in obscurity. In the language of Prescott, "the mists of fable have settled as darkly round its histor...

The most vague and incorrect notions prevail in respect to traveling in South America. The sources of trustworthy and desirable information are very meagre. Murray has not yet p...

The Amazon is a crowded aquarium, holding representatives of every zoological class--infusoria, hydras, fresh-water shells (chiefly Ampullaria, Melania, and Unios), aquatic beet...

Palms on the Middle Amazon _Frontispiece_ Cathedral of Guayaquil Page 27 Equipped for the Andes 37 Ascending the Andes 42 Quito from the North 61 Water-carriers 62 Street in Qui...

Down the Amazon.--Serpa.--Villa Nova.--Obidos.--Santarem.--A Colony of Southerners.--Monte Alégre.--Porto do Moz.--Leaving the Amazon. --Breves.--Pará River.--The City of Pará.-...

Our Tambo.--Ascending the Andes.--Camino Real.--Magnificent Views. --Guaranda.--Cinchona.--The Summit.--Chimborazo.--Over the Andes.--Chuquipoyo the Wretched.--Ambato.--A Stupid...

Sea-Cows and Turtles' Eggs.--The Forest.--Peccaries.--Indian Tribes on the Lower Napo.--Anacondas and Howling Monkeys.--Insect Pests.--Battle with Ants.--Barometric Anomaly.--Fi...