Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

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town on foot ; and
NOTES OF A BOTANIST
it is customary for both men
and women, when riding on horseback, to protect,
the face by a gauze veil from the sand, the
scorching sun, and the cold piercing wind. After
being exposed for some hours to this adverse combination
without such protection, the eyes become
bloodshot, the skin peels off the face, and the
nose becomes red and swollen, in which state it
is emphatically styled a " nariz tostada "
(toasted
nose). I suppose I may have cast the skin of my
nose not fewer than ten times since I came to
Ambato. From this brief sketch of the climate
you will not be surprised to hear that acute
catarrhal complaints, influenza, spitting of blood,
etc., are frequent ;
but
they are very rarely fatal,
and I have not yet seen a single case of pulmonary
consumption ;
and
the climate on the whole must
be considered conducive to longevity. A countryman
of ours, Dr. Jervis, nephew of the first Earl
St. Vincent, died two or three years ago at Cuenca,
at the age of a hundred and fifteen. As fires are
used here only for cooking, the natives have no
calefacients beyond food, clothing, and solar heat,
and the latter is often considerable, although the
thermometer in the shade scarcely ever passes 65.
Very old people are sometimes put into a basket of
cotton and set in the sun, with a wide-brimmed hat
on their head. Then they remind me of newlyhatched
goslings I have seen similarly treated.
It is but two days since I returned from Riobamba,
about 40 miles away to the south, where
I remained about four weeks, on a visit to my
countryman Dr. James Taylor,
who has been in