176 



occur at the same time on the coast and in the interior, 

 and snow falls in the Cordillera when it rains in the 

 low country; but the case is very different in Peru, where 

 rain falls inland and snow on the Cordillera during those 

 months when the sky is clear towards the coast. These rains 

 begin in November, and last till March or April; while the 

 misty season, in the maritime district, is from May till Octo- 

 ber. Hence, summer and winter, in warm climates, being 

 synonymous with dry and rainy season, we have winter in 

 the interior when it is summer on the coast, and vice-versa. 

 One frequently hears this on arriving in the country, but the 

 anomalous fact at first sounds strangely to those who have 

 been accustomed to use the terms winter and summer with 

 relation to the sun's position, north or south of the Equator. 



This singular contrast of the seasons may be witnessed 

 almost every day in the middle of the Lima summer, from 

 the bridge of that city, which commands an extensive view 

 up the Valley of the Rimac : the dark rain-clouds are seen 

 rolling among the mountains, where the tempest is raging in 

 the interior, and sometimes a faint echo of distant thunder 

 reaches the ear; the swollen river, coloured red with 

 earth washed from the hills, runs foaming beneath the feet 

 of the spectator, and he is all the while standing under a 

 bright and cloudless sky, on a spot where a storm was never 

 known in the memory of man. 



As an account of the road between Lima and Pasco will 

 serve to illustrate these remarks, it will be better now to give 

 a sketch of my journey thither, and afterwards conclude what 

 I have to say on this subject. 



A few years ago, the name of Pasco was hardly known in 

 England, although its mines are among the richest in South 

 America; but since the opening of the trade to Peru, and the 

 formation of companies for draining and working the mines, 

 it has become a place of great interest to our merchants, the 

 greater part of the silver coined in Lima, and exported 'u\ 

 exchange for foreign goods, being produced there. 



The mines of Pasco are situated about 45 leagues N. E. 

 of Lima, at the eastern extremity of a large plain, which, 



