Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

196 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.XIX
no chance of obtaining a supper and a bed, and
we had no alternative but to hold on our way to
Riobamba. Having crossed the plaza, we entered a
dark narrow street, some way down which we heard
several men uttering angry shouts. On nearing
them, my horse reared straight up against the
wall alarmed at the sight of the dead bull the
men were dragging along, and which the gloom
had hindered me from seeing. I gave him the
lash and he cleared the obstruction at a bound,
but his rider narrowly escaped being spilt. Beyond
San Andres we had stony descents and ascents ;
a drizzling rain came on, which made the night
more dark, and we had to leave it entirely to the
horses to pick out the way. As I returned by the
same route, with daylight, I was horrified to see
that for a space of nearly two miles we had skirted
the edge of a precipice, where a single false step
would have hurled us to destruction.
Riobamba has about as many inhabitants as
Ambato (8000), but it covers more ground, because
it is less neatly built.
the streets are wider ;
and
It is of equally modern date, and stands three
leagues away to eastward 'of the ruins of ancient
Riobamba (overthrown in 1/97) in the midst of
a flat sandy desert, where the winds have full play,
and raise up whirls of sand that look at a distance
like waterspouts at sea. An open aqueduct from
the paramos of Chimborazo, 15 miles away, supplies
the town with water, which by the time it reaches
Riobamba has got so fouled as to be undrinkable
until it has been passed through a filtering -jar
(called an " estiladera ") that answers its object
admirably.