208 



and he did not probably visit the town where my observations 

 were made, which locahty is considered by the natives the north- 

 ern limit of the zondas. 



John Mier.s, author of an interesting work on the provinces o^ 

 La Plata and Chili, remained a short time in Mendoza, a town 

 nearly one hundred and fifty miles south of San Juan, and capi- 

 tal of the province of Mendoza. He states that this southern 

 locality is annoyed by winds that blow during the summer months 

 from the valley of Zonda, and notes the fact that two dark clouds 

 came from the northwest and hovered over the town during the 

 greater part of the night, and in the morning everything exposed 

 to the air was covered with fine sand, which was of a light-gray 

 color, and slightly magnetic. It was Miers's opinion that " a 

 souffriere, or active volcano," existed to the northward of San 

 Juan, from which the hurricanes and showers of sand originated. 

 Had Mr. Miers visited San Juan, his view of the position of the 

 souffriere, or volcano, would undoubtedly have been changed ; 

 for though the zondas sometimes reach Mendoza to the south, 

 the direction of the wind when it strikes that place, differs from 

 the line it follows when it rushes with violence upon the northern 

 town. At San Juan, it comes due west from the Andes ; hence 

 the starling-point of the zonda cannot be to the north of the 

 town, as Miers conjectured. According to the account of the 

 natives, the zonda of San Juan does not cover a broader space 

 than ten or fifteen miles after it leaves the Sierra of Zonda. 

 Taking this into consideration, in connection with Miers's state- 

 ment that the Mendoza zonda comes from the northwest, differ- 

 ing as it will be seen four points from the northern town, we may 

 infer that the Mendoza and San Juan zondas do not blow at the 

 same time. If this be true, it is an interesting fact, showing that 

 this peculiar wind does not always follow the same track. 



I remained but a short time in Mendoza, and not being conver- 

 sant with the language of the inhabitants at that time, could not 

 have collected information relative to the zonda, as it affects that 

 locality, even had I then been aware of its existence. 



Miers states that these are summer winds in Mendoza. From 

 personal observation and reliable accounts of educated San Juan- 

 inos, I found that they are more particularly the winter winds 

 — at least they are more frequent during that season. Invalids 



