of mud and manure, for this is the halting-place
for all the caravans between Quito and the coast. Our room was a horrid
hole, dark, dirty, damp, and cold, without a window or a fire. There was
one old rickety bedstead, but as that belonged to the lady in our party,
the rest betook themselves to benches, table, and floor. We filled our
stomachs with an unpalatable potato soup containing cheese and eggs, and
laid down--to wait for the morning. Grass is the only fuel here; but
this is not the chief reason why it is so difficult to make good tea or
cook potatoes at this wretched tambo. Water boils at 190 deg., or before it
is fairly hot: it is well the potatoes are small. The muleteers slept
with their beasts outside, though the night was fearfully cold, for
Chuquipoyo lies on the frigid side of Chimborazo, at an elevation of
over twelve thousand feet above the sea. As Johnson said to Boswell,
"This is a dolorous place."

Gladly we left this cheerless tambo, though a cold, heavy mist was
falling as we rode northward, over the seemingly endless paramo of
Sanancajas. Here, as throughout the highlands of Ecuador, ditches are
used for fences; so that, should the traveler wander from the path, he
finds himself stopped by an impassable gulf. In two hours and a half we
reached Mocha, a lifeless pueblo under the shadow of Carguairazo. Slowly
descending from our high altitude, we gradually entered a more congenial
climate--the zone of wheat and barley, till, finally, signs of an
eternal spring were all around us--ripening corn on one side, and
blossoming peas on the other.

Late in the afternoon the road led us through a sandy, sterile tract,
till suddenly we came in sight of Ambato, beautifully situated in a deep
ravine, eight thousand five hundred and fifty feet above the Pacific.
The city ranks next to Quito in beauty. It is certainly an oasis, the
green foliage of its numerous shade-trees and orchards contrasting with
the barren hills around. It is two degrees warmer than Quito, and is
famous for its fruit and fine climate. It is the Lynn of Ecuador, the
chief articles of manufacture being boots and shoes--cheap, but of poor
quality. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1698. The houses are built
of sun-dried brick, and whitewashed. The streets, with gutters in the
centre, are at right angles, and paved, and adorned with numerous
cypress-looking trees, called _sauce_, a species of willow. The Plaza,
which contains a useful if