The Andes and the Amazon; or, Across the continent of South America.

"EVERGREEN QUITO." —MANUFACTURES. 77
sidered downright folly in theory and practice. A large
portion of the valley, left treeless, is becoming less favorable for cultivation.
Yet, as it is, the traveler is charmed by the emerald verdure of the coast, and by "evergreen Quito" —more beautiful than the hanging gardens of Babylon —suspended far
above the ordinary elevation of the clouds. In the San
Francisco market we find wheat, barley, maize, beans, peas,
potatoes, cabbages, beets, salads, pine-apples, chirimoyas,
guavas, oranges, lemons, pears, quinces, peaches, apricots,
melons, and strawberries —the last all the year round.
Most of these are exotics; the early discoverers found not
a cereal grain of the Old World, not an orange or apple,
no sugar-cane or strawberries.*
There is but little manufacturing industry in the interior
of Ecuador, but much more than on the coast. The chief
articles manufactured are straw hats, shoes, baskets, carpets, embroidery, tape, thread, ponchos, coarse woolen and
cotton cloth, saddles, sandals, soap, sugar, cigars, aguardiente, powder, sweetmeats, carved images, paints, and pottery. Wines, crockery, glassware, cutlery, silks, and fine
cloth are imported. There are three cotton mlills in the
country; one in Chillo (established by Seilors Aguirre in
1842), another in Otovalo (built by Selior Parija in 1859),
and a third in Cuenca (1861). The mlachinery of the Chillo factory came from England; that of Otovalo from Patterson, N. J. The latter was utterly destroyed in the late
great earthquake, and the proprietor killed. The cotton is
inferior to that of New Orleans; it is not "fat," as mechanics say; the seeds yield only two per cent. of oil. But
it is whiter than American cotton, though coarse, and can
* The vase is still shown in which Father Rixi brought the first wheat from
Europe. It was sown in what is now the San Francisco llaza, the chief
market-place of the city.