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

78 T.HE ANDES AND TIlE AMAZON.
be used only for very ordinary fabrics. The average length
is five eighths of an inch. One pod will produce on an average three pennyweights. The mills of Chillo and Otovalo consume 425,000 pounds annually. The first sugarmill was erected by the Aguirres in 1840 at Nanegal.
Quito is more than a century behind this age of steam
and lightning. To form an adequate idea of the mechanic
and fine arts in that " city of the kings," we must transport
ourselves to the Saxon period of European civilization.
Both the material and the construction of the houses would
craze Sir Christopher Wren. With fine quarries close at
hand, they must build with mud mixed with stones, or plastered on wattles, like the Druses of Mount Lebanon. LivIndian Dwellings.
ing on the equatorial line and on the meridian so accurately measured by the highest imathematics of France and
Spain, Quitonians must needs leave out every right angle
or straight line in the walls, and every square beam and
rafter. Except on the grand road from Quito to Amlbato,
commenced by President MIoreno, there is not a wheelbarrow to be seen; paving-stones, lime, brick, and dirt, are