392 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



the woods of the Cinchona Condaminea varies between 60° 

 and 66° Fahrenheit; that is to say, about the mean annual 

 temperature of Florence and the Island of Madeira : but the 

 extremes of heat and cold experienced at those points of the 

 temperate zone, are never felt in the vicinity of Loxa. How- 

 ever, comparisons between climates in very different degrees 

 of latitude, and the climate of the table-lands of the tropical 

 zone, must, from their very nature, be unsatisfactory. 



Descending from the mountain node of Loxa, south-south- 

 east, into the hot valley of the Amazon River, the traveller 

 passes over the Paramos of Chulucanas, Guamani, and Yamoca. 

 These Paramos are the mountainous deserts, which have been 

 mentioned in another portion of the present work; and which, 

 in the southern parts of the Andes, are known by the name of 

 Puna, a word belonging to the Quichua language. In most 

 places, their elevation is about 10,125 feet. They are stormy, 

 frequently enveloped for several successive days in thick 

 fogs, or visited by terrific hail-storms; the hail-stones being 

 not only of different forms, generally much flattened by rota- 

 tion, but also run together into thin floating plates of ice 

 called papa-cara, which cut the face and hands in their fall. 

 During this meteoric process, I have sometimes known the 

 thermometer to sink to 48° and even 43° Fahrenheit, and the 

 electric tension of the atmosphere, measured by the voltaic 

 electrometer, has changed, in the space of a few minutes, 

 from positive to negative. When the temperature is below 

 43° Fahrenheit, snow falls in large flakes, scattered widely 

 apart; but it disappears after the lapse of a few hours. The 

 short thin branches of the small leaved myrtle-like shrubs, the 

 large size and luxuriance of the blossoms, and the perpetual 

 freshness caused by the absorption of the moist atmosphere — 

 all impart a peculiar aspect and character to the treeless 

 vegetation of the Paramos. No zone of Alpine vegetation > 

 whether in temperate or cold climates, can be compared with 

 that of the Paramos in the tropical Andes. 



