Situation of Zones without Rain, and of Deserts. 77 
Lastly, from 5° north to California, rains and fine weather, 
the seasons of suns and of clouds, again succeed each other 
very regularly, but in a manner the reverse of Guayaquil ; 
so that the zone of hemi-annual rains so violently stifled 
in the southern hemisphere, between those of droughts 
and of perpetual rains, again acquires all its preponder- 
ance. 
The distribution of the vegetation is, moreover, in perfect 
harmony with this succession of zones. Thus, around Con- 
ception, there are great forests ; to this vigorous vegetation, 
succeeds, near Valparaiso, gloomy brushwood and spare pas- 
ture, excepting on the flanks of the mountains towards San- 
tiago, which are, from time to time, carpeted with verdure ; 
every thing indicates a languishing soil, owing to the want of 
humidity. At Coquimbo the evil increases ; the brushwood 
disappears, and only a few herbs are visible. From this 
point as far as Guayaquil, over more than an extent of 1600 
miles, several vast solitudes are met with without verdure, 
whose moving sands, scarcely covering the subjacent rock, 
present a frightful aridity. Thus, from Coquimbo to Copiapo, 
over a space of a hundred leagues, there are neither towns 
nor villages, and only a few farm houses. We then come to 
the desiertos of Atacama, where the mules frequently perish 
from want of grass and of water; thence, beyond Lima, and 
to the north of Truxillo, occur the destertos of Picera and of 
Sechura. These plains, however, are here and there inter- 
sected by rivers coming from the Cordilleras ; some of them 
are only intermitting, whether from morning to evening, or 
from one season to another: they fertilize their valleys, and, 
in some measure, produce oases, among the number of which 
are those of Arica, of Coquimbo, of Quillota, famous for the 
quantity of corn they yearly produce ; and, lastly, that of 
Lambaryeque, where there are extensive forests. In the 
neighbouring districts, where the water cannot be conve- 
niently conducted for the irrigation of the soil, as, for ex- 
ample, around Pisco, the vine is cultivated by planting the 
stocks in holes, having a depth of four or five feet, because 
there is there sufficient humidity for their growth. But these 
facts, derived from remote causes, do not, in any degree, in- 
