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Asiento de Ambato

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Or ASIENTO DE Ambato, an inland town of Ecuador, capital of the province of Tunguragua, 80 m. S. of Quito by the highway, and near the northern foot of Chimborazo. Pop. (est.) 1 o,000. The town stands in a bowl-like depression, 8606 ft. above sea-level, surrounded by steep, sandy, barren mountains, and has an equable climate, which has been likened to a perpetual autumn. The immediate environs are very fertile and produce a great variety of fruits, including many of the temperate zone, but the surrounding country is arid and sterile, producing scanty crops of barley, Indian corn and pease. The cochineal insect is found on the cactus which grows in abundance in the vicinity, and the town is known throughout Ecuador for its manufacture of boots and shoes, and for a cordage made from cabuya, the fibre of the agave plant. Ambato was destroyed by an eruption of Cotopaxi in 1698, and has been badly damaged two or three times by earthquakes.