in the
most alkaloid, though the branches are usually barked for commerce. The
true cinchona barks, containing quinine, quinidine, and cinchonine, are
distinguished from the false by their splintery-fibrous texture, the
latter being pre-eminently corky. The cascarilleros begin to hunt for
bark in August. Dr. Taylor, of Riobamba, found one tree which gave $3600
worth of quinine. The general yield is from three to five pounds to a
quintal of bark. The tree has been successfully transplanted to the
United States, and particularly to India, where there are now over a
million of plants. It was introduced into India by Markham in 1861. The
bark is said to be stronger than that from Ecuador, yielding twice as
much alkaloid, or eleven per cent. The quinine of commerce will
doubtless come hereafter from the slopes of the Himalayas instead of the
Andes. In 1867 only five thousand pounds of bark were exported from
Guayaquil. The Indians use the bark of another tree, the _Maravilla_,
which is said to yield a much stronger alkaloid than cinchona. It grows
near Pallatanga.

[Footnote 14: This celebrated febrifuge was first taken to Europe about
the middle of the seventeenth century, and was named after the Countess
of Chinchon, who had been cured of intermittent fever at Lima.
Afterward, when Cardinal de Lugo spread the knowledge of the remedy
through France, and recommended it to Cardinal Mazarin, it received the
name of _Jesuits' Bark_. The French chemists, Pelletier and Caverton,
discovered quinine in 1820.]

We left Guaranda at 5 A.M. by the light of Venus and Orion, having
exchanged our horses for the sure-footed mule. It was a romantic ride.
From a neighboring stand-point Church took one of his celebrated views
of "The Heart of the Andes." But the road, as aforetime, was a mere
furrow, made and kept by the tread of beasts. For a long distance the
track runs over the projecting and jagged edges of steeply-inclined
strata of slate, which nobody has had the energy to smooth down. At many
places on the road side were human skulls, set in niches in the bank,
telling tales of suffering in their ghastly silence; while here and
there a narrow passage was blocked up by the skeleton or carcass of a
beast that had borne its last burden. At nine o'clock we came out on a
narrow, grassy ridge called the Ensillada, or Saddleback, where there
were three straw huts, with roofs resting on the ground, and there we
breakfasted on _locro_. During