In This Province, A Little Beyond The Villa Of Ibarra, Between The Snowy Summits Of Cotocache And Imbabura, The Two Cordilleras Of Quito Unite, And Form One Mass, Extending To Meneses And Voisaco, From 0 Degrees 21 Minutes North Latitude To 1 Degree 13 Minutes.

I call this mass, on which are situated the volcanoes of Cumbal and Chiles, the knot of the mountains of Los Pastos, from the name of the province that forms the centre.

The volcano of Pasto, the last eruption of which took place in the year 1727, is on the south of Yenoi, near the northern limit of this group, of which the inhabited table-lands are more than 1600 toises above sea-level. It is the Thibet of the equinoctial regions of the New World.

On the north of the town of Pasto (latitude 1 degree 13 minutes north; longitude 79 degrees 41 minutes) the Andes again divide into two branches and surround the table-land of Mamendoy and Almaguer. The eastern Cordillera contains the Sienega of Sebondoy (an alpine lake which gives birth to the Putumayo), the sources of the Jupura or Caqueta, and the Paramos of Aponte and Iscanse. The western Cordillera, that of Mamacondy, called in the country Cordillera de la Costa, on account of its proximity to the shore of the Pacific, is broken by the great Rio de Patias, which receives the Guativa, the Guachicon and the Quilquase. The table-land or intermediary basin has great inequalities; it is partly filled by the Paramos of Pitatumba and Paraguay, and the separation of the two chains appeared to me indistinct as far as the parallel of Almaguer (latitude 1 degree 54 minutes; longitude 79 degrees 15 minutes). The general direction of the Andes, from the extremity of the basin of the province of Quito to the vicinity of Popayan, changes from north 8 degrees east to north 36 degrees east; and follows the direction of the coast of Esmeralda and Barbacoas.

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