Note 9 — Chapter I
Reading edition
Cordillera (pronounced Cor-de-yér-ra), literally a long ridge, is usually applied to a longitudinal subdivision of the Andes, as the east and west cordilleras inclosing the valley of Quito; Sierra (from the Spanish for saw or Arabic sehrah, an uncultivated tract) is a jagged spur of the Andes; Cerro, "a hog-backed hill." Paramo (a desert) is the treeless, uninhabited, uncultivated rolling steppes just below the snow-limit.