We shall conclude our remarks upon the individual mountains of the double range, by introducing an ex tract from Humboldt's travels, containing some particu lars respecting the Paramos of Pasto and Assuay, which cannot fail to prove interesting to our readers.
" In order to go from Popayan to Quito, it was ne cessary to cross the Paramos from Pasto, even in the rainy season, which had already commenced. The name of Paramo is given, in the Andes, to every place at the height of 1700 or 2000 toises, where vegetation ceases, and where a cold, which penetrates to the bones, is experienced. To avoid the heats of the valley of Patia, where people in the course of one night are seized with fevers, which continue three or four months, and which are known under the name of calcuturas de Patio, (fevers of Patia), we passed the summit of the Cordillera, by horrid precipices, in order to proceed from Popayan to Almager, and thence to Pasto, situated at the bottom of a terrible volcano. Nothing can be more frightful than the entrance and outlet of this valley, in which we spent the Christmas holidays, and where the inhabitants received us with the utmost hospitality. It was covered with thick forests, situated among marshes, where the mules sunk half up to their backs ; and we passed ravines so deep and so narrow, that we thought we were entering the galleries of a mine. The roads, therefore, are paved with the bones of mules, which have pe rished here with cold and fatigue. The whole province of Pasto, comprehending the environs of Guachucal and Tuqueres, is a cold plain, almost above that point at which vegetation can take place, and surrounded by volcanoes and soufrieres, which continually throw up clouds of smoke. The unfortunate inhabitants of these deserts have no other food but potatoes ; and when these fail, as they did last year, (1800), they go into the moun tains, to eat the trunk of a small tree, called achupalla (pourretia pitcarnia.) As this tree, however, is the food also of the bears of the Andes, the latter often dispute with them the only nourishment which these elevated regions afford.
" From Riobamba, I proceeded by the famous paramo of Assuay towards Cuenza, after having visited the large sulphur mines of Tirrau. It was this mountain of sul phur, which the negroes, who revolted in 1797, after the earthquake, attempted to set on fire. This, no doubt,
was the most desperate project ever attempted, for they hoped by these means to form a volcano, which would swallow up the whole province of Alaussy. At the height of the paramo of Assuay, an elevation of 2300 toises, are the magnificent ruins of the Inca's highway. It conducted almost to Cuzco, was entirely constructed of cut stone, and very straight, and resembled the most beautiful of the Roman roads. In the same neighbour hood are found also the ruins of the palace of the Inca Tapayapangi, of which Condamine gave a description, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin. In the quarry which furnished the stones, there are still seen several half cut. I do not know whether Condamine spoke also of the Inca's billiard table. The Indians name this place in the Quichua language, Inca-chungana, the Inca's game. But I must doubt, whether it was ever destined for this purpose. It is a seat cut out in the rock, with ornaments in the Arabesque form, in which it is be lieved that the ball ran. There is nothing more elegant in our gardens in the English style, and every thing proves the good taste of the Inca, for the seat is so situa ted as to command a delightful view." Next to their immense height and colossal form, there is nothing perhaps in the general aspect of these moun tains, which so much surprises the traveller, as the ap pearance of their summits clad in perpetual snow. Though accustomed in some degree to a similar ap pearance in colder climates, lie is by no means prepared to expect, that mountains, exposed to the full blaze of a vertical sun, should in like manner present all the hor rors and desolation of an arctic winter. The condition of these mountains seems to establish the general princi ple, that under every climate, the higher we ascend in the atmosphere, the greater is the degree of cold ; and that no region, provided the land be sufficiently elevated, is exempted from the dominion of snow and frost. The only difference seems to be, that under the equator, the line at which perpetual snow commences is farther re moved from the surface of the earth, than under any higher degree of latitude. This line, or inferior term of perpetual congelation, as it is called, was found by an.