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Show PLATEAU OF CAXAl\IARCA. 427 Paramos, where we were expo ed almost ince antly to the fury of the wind and to the sha1·p-edged hail so peculiar to the ridges of the Andes. The height of the route above the level of the sea is generally between nine and ten thou and feet (about 9600 and 10,660 Eng.). It afforded me, howe"\"er, the opportunity of making a magnetic ob ervation of general intere t; i. e. the determination of the point where the North Inclination of the Needle pa ses into South Inclination, or where the traveller's route crosses the Magnetic Equator. (12) On reaching at length the last of these mountain wildernesses, ~he Paramo de Yanaguanga, the traveller looks down with increased plea ure on the fertile valley of Caxamarca. It affords a charming prospect; a small river winds through the elevated plain, which is of an oval form and about six or seven German geographical square miles in extent (96 or 112 Engli h geographical square miles). The plain resembles that of Bogota: both are probably the bottoms of ancient lakes; but at Caxamarca there is wanting the myth of the wonder-working Botschica or Idacanzas, the high-priest of Iraca, who opened for the waters a passage through the rock of Tequendama. Caxamarca is ~tuated 600 (640 Eng.) feet higher than Santa Fe de Bogota, therefore almost as high as the city of Quito ; but being sheltered by surrounding mountains it enjoys a far milder and more agreeable climate. The soil is extremely fertile, and the plain full of cultivated fields and gardens traversed by avenues of Willows, large-flowered red, white, and yellow varieties of Datura, Mimosas, and the beautiful Quinuar-trees (our Polylepsis villosa, a Rosacea allied to Alchemilla and Sanguisorba). Wheat yields on an average, in the Pampa de Caxamarca, fifteen to twentyfold, but the hopes of a plentiful harvest are sometimes disappointed by night frosts, occasioned by the great radiation of heat towards the unclouded sky through the dry and rarefied mountain air : the frosts are not felt in the roofed houses. In the northern part of the plain, small porphyritic domes break through the widely extended sandstone strata, and probably once formed islands in the ancient lake before its waters had flowed off. On the summit of one of these domes, the Cerro de Santa Polonia, we enjoyed a pleasing prospect. The ancient residence of Atuhu- |