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x,x IN THE ECUADOREAX ANDES 209
covering up my face with my hands, I resigned myself
to the sorrowful reflection that I must leave all
these fine things " to waste their sweetness on the
desert air." From that point upwards one may
safely assume that nearly everything was new,
and I have no doubt that the tract of country lying
eastward from Pasto and Popayan, where are the
head-waters of the Japura, Uaupes, and Guaviare-
probably nearly
conterminous offers as rich a
field for a botanist as any in South America. But
I have made inquiries as to the possibility of reach-
ing it, and I find that it will be necessary to cross
paramos of the most rugged and inhospitable character,
and afterwards risk oneself among wild and
fierce Indians, so that I fear its exploration must
be left to some one younger and more vigorous
than myself.
If I remain in this country and clo not make
Quito my head-quarters, I suppose I must go to
and the
Loja, where the climate is more temperate
flora no doubt magnificent. People who travel
that way all speak with admiration of the abundance
and beauty of the flowers. 1
To Sir William Hooker
QUITO, Au^-. 15, 1858.
The house in which 1 reside is on the very slope
of Pichincha, and is actually the last house in Ouito,
1 The
route aimi^ tin.- < 'ordilleru to I.nja is now link- traversi d, and is
difficult and expensive. The s. called " road ''
has no mending (or marring)
save what it gets from the rains and the liooN of the imile^. There i
not a single road in the Ecuador.
VOL. ii
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