tionately entwined by a serpent, or sprung upon by a jaguar, or
bitten by a rattlesnake; jiggers in every sand-heap and scorpions under
every stone" (_Edinburgh Review_, xliii, 310). Padre Vernazza speaks of
meeting a serpent two yards in diameter! But you will be disappointed at
the paucity of animal life. We were two months on the Andes (August and
September) before we saw a live snake. They are plentiful in the wet
season in cacao plantations; but the majority are harmless. Dr. Russel,
who particularly studied the reptiles of India, found that out of
forty-three species which he examined not more than seven had poisonous
fangs; and Sir E. Tennent, after a long residence in Ceylon, declared he
had never heard of the death of an European by the bite of a snake. It
is true, however, that the number and proportion of the venomous species
are greater in South America than in any other part of the world; but it
is some consolation to know that, zoologically, they are inferior in
rank to the harmless ones; "and certainly," adds Sidney Smith, "a snake
that feels fourteen or fifteen stone stamping on his tail has little
time for reflection, and may be allowed to be poisonous." If bitten,
apply ammonia externally immediately, and take five drops in water
internally; it is an almost certain antidote. The discomforts and
dangers arising from the animal creation are no greater than one would
meet in traveling overland from New York to New Orleans.

Finally, of one thing the tourist in South America may be assured--that
dear to him, as it is to us, will be the remembrance of those romantic
rides over the Cordilleras amid the wild magnificence of nature, the
adventurous walk through the primeval forest, the exciting canoe-life on
the Napo, and the long, monotonous sail on the waters of the Great
River.

CHAPTER XXIV.

IN MEMORIAM.

"A life that all the Muses decked
With gifts of grace that might express
All comprehensive tenderness,
All-subtilizing intellect."--TENNYSON.

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 century: here the French and Spanish
academicians made their celebrated measurement of a meridian of the
earth. As you stand on the edge of this plain just without the city, you
see the dazzling summit of Cayambi looking down from the north; on your
left are