"The central portion of Ecuador," said he, "is at an elevation of several thousand feet, and contains many active volcanoes. The valleys in which are the cities and cultivated part of the country are rarely less than 6000 feet above the level of the sea, and some of them rise to 10,000 or 12,000. The highest of the mountains is Chimborazo, 21,422 feet high; it was for a long time supposed to be the highest mountain of America, but modern surveys have shown that it has several superiors. It is the sixth in elevation of the chain of the Andes, and these in turn are surpassed, in the Old World, by several of the Himalayas. The best known of the active volcanoes is Cotopaxi, nearly 19,000 feet high, but there are others that rival it in destructive energy.
"We shall have opportunity to study these volcanoes quite nearly," continued the Doctor, "as we go to Quito and the region around it. There does not appear to be any danger of an eruption at present, and if we allow our minds to be constantly filled with dread of a catastrophe we shall not enjoy the journey. So we'll let the earthquakes take care of themselves, as they generally do."
In the afternoon they arranged for the storage of such baggage as they did not wish to take with them. Trunks were left behind, and the whole trio was reduced to light marching order, in accordance with their custom when making the excursions of which we have read in "The Boy Travellers in the Far East." Toilet bags, with a small stock of underclothing, an extra suit of clothes for a change in case of being drenched with rain, and overcoats, rugs, wraps, and blankets, for the cold weather at great elevations, comprised the equipment for the journey to Quito.
Travellers must carry their own bedding and provisions while journeying in the interior of Ecuador, and, in fact, in most of the South American countries. This was the custom adopted by the old Spaniards, and customs change here very slowly. Hotels are scarce, and the lodging-houses along the road give little more than a roof for shelter, and sometimes not even that. If a man ventures to travel without carrying his own supplies he will often go hungry; but, on the other hand, he may be sure of the most uniform kindness from the people of the country. They will give him the best they have, but very often they have literally nothing to offer.
LAS BODEGAS, GUAYAS RIVER.
The Guayas is navigable by small steamers from Guayaquil to Bodegas, a distance of seventy miles. Our friends took passage upon one of the steamers plying on the river, and were safely landed at Bodegas after a pleasant run of eight or nine hours. Frank recorded in his note-book that the river is not a swift one, and flows through a flat country in which there is not much of interest beyond the vegetation. "The banks," said he, "are lined with groves of bananas and plantains; the fruit of these trees forms an important article of food with the inhabitants, and it is no wonder they are not disposed to hard labor when they can supply themselves without it.
"The banana can be eaten raw, but the raw plantain is considered unhealthy. Both plantains and bananas are cooked in a variety of ways, baked, boiled, fried, or roasted; they can be formed into a paste after cooking, and then dried, and in this condition the article can be kept for a long time. Humboldt estimated that four thousand pounds of bananas can be produced in the same area as thirty-three pounds of wheat or ninety-nine pounds of potatoes. They are cultivated with very little labor, and there is nothing which the soil produces that gives so great an amount of food from a given area of land. If a man will live only on bananas he can take things very easily.