ECUADOR 107 
gust 14, 1830, Ecuador proclaimed herself an 
independent republic, adopting a constitution 
similar to those in vogue in Latin America. 
The executive power is vested in a President 
and Vice-President, the legislative in a Na 
tional Congress composed of two houses—a 
Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. 
Ecuador has an area of 116,000 square miles, 
or about as big as the combined areas of Mis 
souri and Arkansas. The Galapagos Islands, 
which at one time the United States tried to 
acquire by purchase for a coaling station, lying 
750 miles to the westward, with an area about 
2500 square miles, also belong to this country. 
Ecuador is wedge-shaped, bounded on the 
north and east by Colombia, on the south by 
Peru while the waters of the Pacific lap its 
western shore line. 
The climate is diversified, running all the 
gamuts of change from tropic, semi-tropic and 
temperate to cold. The tropical region, as 
may be surmised, starts at the coast line and 
continues to the foothills where it gradually 
changes to semi-tropical at 6000 feet, and to