Ch. VI. SOUTH AMERICA. 77 



the earth; or another, which being more distant from 

 it they blow there more violently, 



I AT first declared ag;aiiist any positive assertion, 

 that the opinion I have now laid before the render 

 is founded on such undoubted physical principles, 

 that no other can be advanced more conformable to 

 pha^nomena ; it bcincr difficult immediately to fix on 

 causes which agreeing with all circumstances, leaves 

 the mind entirely satisfied : and as all within the 

 reach of human perspicuity cannot be accommodated 

 to every particular, as entire conviction requires, let 

 it suffice that Í have here delivered my thoughts ; 

 leaving the naturalists at full liberty to investigate 

 the true cause, and when discovered, to reject my 

 hypothesis *. 



As rain is seldom or never seen at Lima, so that 

 place is also equally free from tempests ; that so those 

 who have neither visited the mountains nor travelled 

 into other parts, as Guayaquil or Chili, are abso- 

 lute strangers to thunder and lightning ; nothing of 

 that kind being known here. Accordingly, the in- 

 habitants are extremely terrified when they first hear 

 the former or see the latter. But it is very remark- 

 able, that what is here entirely unknown, should be 

 so common at thirty leagues distant, or even less, 

 to the east of Lima ; it being no farther to the moun- 

 tains, where violent rains and tempests are as fre- 

 quent as at Quito. The winds, though settled in the 

 above-mentioned points, are subject to variations, but 

 almost imperceptible, as we shall explain. They 

 are also very gentle, and even in the severest win- 



* A more probable conjecture is, that the vapours which arise in 

 the great Soutli Sea, and are brought into this neighbourhood by- 

 the south wind (where they \\ould naturally condense into clouds 

 and fall in showers), are attracted by the Cordilleras, whose tups are 

 generally inveloped in clouds tiightful to behold, which spend 

 themselves in tremendous tempests, even shaking the foundations 

 of those lofty mountains. A, 



3 ters. 



