The summit of this mountain is called Rucu Pichincha, old Pichincha; it is composed of several spire-shaped rocks, rising above the snow, at the back of the crater; these are seen from Mindo, a small village situated near the road which I re-explored, between Quito and Esmeraldas. Detached from this there is the top of another mountain, connected with the same base, and called Huahna Pichincha, young Pichincha; its head is rocky, and it is the highest point that the Spanish and French academicians arrived at during their operations.
El Altar, formerly called by the indians Caparurar, and which name it still retains among the natives, when speaking of it in Quichua, signifying the snow mountain, was anciently higher than Chimboraso is at present; but the volcano having consumed the walls of the crater till they were incapable of supporting their own weight, the top fell in. This was the case with that of Carguairaso in 1698; and the ruins of the two volcanos bear a strong similarity in their pointed ridges, their spire-like rocks, and leaning directions; they appear as if falling into decayed heaps.
I have only mentioned the most remarkable of the mountains visible at the city of Quito; but besides these are the following in different parts of the kingdom:
| MOUNTAINS. | VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS. | |||
| Aritahua | Cumbal | |||
| Asuay | Sangay | |||
| Caxanuma | Sara-urcu. | |||
| Cotacache | ||||
| Guacaya | ||||
| Sinchulagua | ||||
| Quelendana | ||||
| Rumi nahui | ||||
| Supay urcu | ||||
| Tolonta | ||||
| Tunguragua | ||||
| Uritusinga | ||||
| Yana urcu | ||||
| Imbaburu. | ||||
Many of the ravines, quebradas, and valleys in this province have a very warm atmosphere, which in some is so very hot and unwholesome that they are uninhabitable. Other valleys which are more elevated are remarkably healthy, uncommonly productive, and extremely delightful as places of residence. One of these, called Pomasqui, is about five leagues from Quito, where sugar-cane arrives at a state of maturity in three years, and where many of the intertropical fruits come to their greatest perfection. This luxury is enhanced by the proximity of other situations possessing all the variety of climates known in the world: in the course of three hours a person may experience the rigidity of the poles, the oppressive heat of the equator, and all the intermediate temperatures. A peon will ascend a mountain in the morning, and return with ice so early in the day as to afford time to allow him to bring before sunset the luscious pine-apple, the banana, and the chirimoya, to where the apple, peach, and pear grow and ripen. There the botanist at one glance would compass the whole of the vegetable creation, and in one day's excursion would range from the palm to the region where vegetation becomes extinct.
These valleys are principally under cultivation, and bless the husbandman with a continued succession of crops; for the uninterrupted sameness of the climate in any spot is such as to preclude the plant as well as the fruit from being damaged by sudden changes in the temperature of the atmosphere, changes which are in other countries so detrimental to the health of the vegetable world. The fertility of some of these valleys exceeds all credibility, and the veracity of the description would be doubted, did not the knowledge of their localities and the universal descriptions of the equability and benignity of these climates ensure the probability. An European is astonished on his first arrival here to see the plough and the sickle, the sower and the thrashing-floor, at the same time in equal requisition:—to see at one step a herb fading through age, and at the next one of the same kind springing up—one flower decayed and drooping, and its sister unfolding her beauties to the sun—some fruits inviting the hand to pluck them, and others in succession beginning to shew their ripeness—others can scarcely be distinguished from the colour of the leaves which shade them, while the opening blossoms ensure a continuation. Nothing can be more beautiful than to stand on an eminence and observe the different gradations of the vegetable world, from the half-unfolded blade just springing from the earth, to the ripe harvest yellowing in the sun and gently waving with the breeze.
An enumeration of the different vegetable productions of this province would be useless; it will be sufficient to observe, that grain, pulse, fruits, esculents, and horticultural vegetables are produced in the greatest abundance and of an excellent quality, as well as all kinds of flesh meat and poultry.
The province of Quito abounds in veins of gold and silver ore; but at present (1810) none are wrought. Grains of gold are often found among the sand washed down from Pichincha; but no search has ever been made to discover the matrix, nor does any tradition exist, nor any vestige remain of the working of mines in this mountain.