Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

IN THE ECUADOREAN ANDES 183
lake (Myriophyllum, Lemna, and Callitriche).
Guayrapata is almost as mossy as Abitagua, and
much more flowery.
[In a letter to his friend Mr. Teasdale, written
a few days later, there are some details which are
additional to those given to Mr. Bentham. After
describing the journey to Banos in much the same
terms, he :
proceeds
September 14, 1857.
Banos is a poor little place of about a thousand
souls ; and it takes its name from certain hot
springs
that well out at the foot of a cataract of
very cold water, falling from an offshoot of Tungu-
"
ragua. The patron saint Nuestra Senora de las
Aguas Santas " '
-is a very miraculous saint, and
"
romeros" (i.e. pilgrims) come to adore at her shrine
from far-away towns. In large troops they come-
bathe nine days in the hot wells, assist at nine
masses, rosarios, and processions, get drunk every
night of the nine all in honour of the virgin and
then, after these " actas de devocion," as they are
called, return to their homes rejoicing, having
fulfilled some previously-made promise to the saint,
and feeling secure of her protection for the future.
Banos is nearly 6000 feet above the sea, and
nestles under Tunguragua in the gorge of the
Pastasa, where the deep narrow valley widens out
a little at the estuary of a small river (the Bacciin)
which rushes down from the volcano. In the
village we have oranges, bananas, and sugarcane,
and on the hills close by barley, beans, and
potatoes. Wheat is grown farther up the Andes,