Industrial and commercial South America

by Annie S. Peck

The Metric System is legal, but the old Spanish weights and measures, as in Colombia, are much used.

CHAPTER XV
ECUADOR: PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Ecuador, like Peru, has three longitudinal sections: the Coastal zone, the Inter Andine region, including the mountain ranges with the plateau or valleys between, and the Trans Andine, a part of the Amazon basin.

The Coastal Zone

The coastal zone in Ecuador is much wider than at the north or south. We have seen that in Colombia the mountain ranges are so close to the shore as to leave little space for cities or agriculture, while in Peru and Chile for the most part the mountains are visible from the sea. Further, a good portion of Ecuador’s coastal zone resembles in some respects the Amazon section, while in Peru the two are utterly different. Ecuador is the only country favored on the Pacific side with rivers navigable to any considerable extent, and the dense tropical vegetation of much of the coast is in striking contrast to the Peruvian deserts. Remembering that the equator crosses this country, it is easy to understand that where there is much rain the lowlands have a humid tropical climate. The coast curves slightly outward from the north to Capes San Lorenzo and Santa Elena, the latter lacking but a few miles of being the most western point of South America, which distinction falls to Peru. Near these capes the waters of the cold Antarctic current turn west towards the Galápagos Islands, the tropical waters above and the colder current below affecting the climate of the two sections. Just south of Cape Santa Elena begins the Gulf of Guayaquil, the only considerable arm of the sea indenting the West Coast between Panamá and the Island of Chiloé in Chile, a stretch of 3000 miles. Considering the gulf as the broad triangle between Capes Santa Elena, Ecuador, and Blanco in Peru, with the island, Puná, as inner limit, the width is 140 miles. The boundary line of Ecuador, a little north of the Tumbes River, leaves most of the Gulf line in that country. The Gulf penetrates east and slightly north about 100 miles to the Guayas River or estuary. Along the southern shore are occasional estuaries with small river openings and mangrove swamps.

The Mountain Section

The central mountainous region belongs of course to the great chain of the Andes. As in the countries previously studied, this section of Ecuador differs greatly from the lowlands. Happily the formation is simpler than in Colombia. Extending from a rather confused mass near the boundary of Peru to another jumble of peaks at the Colombian border, a distance of 300 miles, are two parallel ranges, the East and the West Cordillera, from 20 to 30 miles apart. The plateau region between, which is higher at the north, is separated by two lower transverse ridges called páramos into three shallow basins or plains: those of Quito, Ambato, and Cuenca; the first basin with an altitude of 9500 feet, the second, 8500 feet, the third, 7800 feet. Some of the water from these flows into the Pacific and some into the Atlantic. East and west are the two rows of mountains in a remarkably symmetrical arrangement, sometimes exactly opposite each other. Nowhere else in the world are there two such rows of giants or such a collection of snow crowned volcanoes. Of the 22 great peaks, several are active volcanoes and more are extinct. The main range or Cordillera Real is the eastern, with the larger number of lofty peaks; but the highest of all is in the West Cordillera, Chimborazo, altitude 20,498 feet. This mountain, first ascended by Edward Whymper, a celebrated English climber, in 1880, was formerly supposed by many to be the loftiest of the Andes; but farther south at least a dozen peaks are higher, probably two or three times as many.

The volcanic section, as we have seen, extends into Colombia; but not into Peru. Especially noteworthy are Cotopaxi of the East Cordillera, the highest active volcano in the world, 19,613 feet, and Pichincha, the only one historically eruptive in the West Cordillera. The latter, situated very near Quito, has been the source of highly destructive eruptions. Sangay, east of the Ambato Basin, the most southern and among the most active on the globe, does little harm as no settlements are near. The Cuenca Basin, with no erupting volcanoes, contains volcanic material. In the most southern province, Loja, no such signs appear, nor in Peru for some degrees south.

Oriente

The country of the Oriente, with no llanos, is similar to forested southeastern Colombia. The mountains slope down into the forests, which cover their lower eastern declivities and the plain beyond. This inclines toward the region of the Amazon, with slight undulations well away from the mountains; but the nearer sections are broken by lateral spurs from the main chain, or by low isolated ranges separating the basins of the larger Amazon affluents.