the cactus, and is of
a dark brown color. It takes seventy thousand to make a pound, which is
sold in the valley for from sixty cents to $3. The best cochineal comes
from Teneriffe, where it was introduced from Honduras in 1835. The
silk-worm is destined to work a revolution in the finances of Ecuador;
Quito silk gained a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition. No bees are
hived in the republic; the people seem to be content with treacle. The
Italian species would undoubtedly thrive here. The bees of Ecuador, like
all the bees of the New World, are inferior to those of the Old World.
Their cells are not perfectly hexagonal, and their stings are
undeveloped. They are seldom seen feeding on flowers. Mollusca in the
Quito Valley are not great in number or variety. They belong principally
to the genera _Bulimus_, _Cyclostoma_, and _Helix_. The first is as
characteristic of the Southern Continent as _Helix_ of the North and
_Achatina_ of Africa.

[Footnote 45: _Herpetodryas carinatus_, which we observed also at
Guayaquil and on the Maranon. We procured two or three species from the
natives, and several new forms from Pallatanga, on the west slope.]

[Footnote 46: _Antelopus laevis_ at Ambato, and _A. longirostris_, a new
species from Antisana Hacienda, were the only frogs noticed. The little
fish is _Pimelodes cyclopum_ (prenadilla of the Spaniards, _imba_ of the
Indians), the same that was thrown out in the eruptions of Imbabura and
Caraguairazo.]

[Footnote 47: The jigger, chigoe, or nigua (_Pulex penetrans_ of
science) is a microscopic flea, that buries itself under the skin and
lays a myriad eggs; the result is a painful tumor. Jiggers are almost
confined to sandy places.]

From the animal creation we mount by a short step to the imbruted
Indian. When and by whom the Andes were first peopled is a period of
darkness that lies beyond the domain of history. But geology and
archaeology are combining to prove that Sorata and Chimborazo have looked
down upon a civilization far more ancient than that of the Incas, and
perhaps coeval with the flint-flakes of Cornwall, and the shell-mounds
of Denmark. On the shores of Lake Titicaca are extensive ruins which
antedate the advent of Manco Capac, and may be as venerable as the
lake-dwellings of Geneva. Wilson has traced six terraces in going up
from the sea through the province of Esmeraldas toward Quito; and
underneath the living forest, which is older than the Spanish invasion,
ma