Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

2 3 o NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
varied by a few shallow quebradas (ravines). The
soil is what in Yorkshire we used to call " a leight
blaw-away sand," which, when the sun and wind are
up, scorches and blinds the traveller, though it
produces scanty crops of maize, barley, peas, and
lupines (eaten here under the name of " chocchos ").
The indigenous vegetation
is limited to a few
insignificant weeds, chiefly Composites, nestling
under the hedges of Yucca and Agave. The
flowers of the two latter plants so great a rarity
in England are here to be seen all the year round,
and their tall tree-like peduncles are the poles used
throughout the Cordillera for all common purposes,
such as fences, rafters, and even walls of houses,
etc. Long files of asses laden with them enter the
towns of Ambato and Riobamba every market-day.
Beyond Mocha we leave the sandy country, and
after passing two streams which descend from
Mount Carguairazo on our right, we begin to
ascend to the Paramo de Sanancajas, the grassy
meseta (plateau) which extends along the eastern
base of Chimborazo, at a height of from 11,000 to
12,000 feet. Near its commencement the road
leading from Quito to Guayaquil branches off to the
right, while that to Riobamba and Cuenca continues
straight on. The weather had been rainy for many
rain all the
previous days, and we had had drizzling
way to Mocha, so that we were not without apprehension
of suffering from the cold on the paramo.
Fortunately, just as we reached it, the sun shone
forth, the clouds cleared away, and the glaciers of
Chimborazo stood out against the blue sky like cut
marble ; but the ground was still so sloppy that
what I had formerly passed over in two hours now