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Colombia between the Years 1820 and 1830. 3 
thick plants, afford shelter and subsistance only to flocks of goats 
and asses. The coast of Rio Hacha is equally dry and sterile, 
till it approaches the foot of the isolated ridge of Santa Marta; 
while the Goagira territory, situated betwixt Rio Hacha and Mar- 
acaybo, is regularly inundated every year, and consequently, 
though destitute of streams, maintains considerable herds of cat- 
tle and horses; a cirewmstance to be ascribed to the vicinity of 
the Ocaiia branch of the Andes, which extends, with its clouds 
and thick forests, almost to the confines of this province. The 
whole Peruvian coast from Payta to Lima, is an additional in- 
stance of the same fact, where the recession of the Andes from 
the coast is marked by sandy deserts, which the industry of the 
Incas had rendered productive by artificial irrigation. In the val- 
leys and on the table lands of the mountains themselves, the cul- 
minating summits produce great variations in the distribution of 
moisture. The city of Caraccas, situated at the foot of the Silla, 
has the benefit of a regular though mild rainy season, while 
within a league there are spots which suffer several years of 
drought. Popayan, placed at the head of a sultry valley of the 
Cauca, and surrounded by lofty paramos, has nine months of 
continued rains and tempests, attributable to the clouds which 
are driven in opposite directions from the mountains till they 
encounter the hot ascending air of the valley. In the ancient 
kingdom of Quito, now called the Republic of the Equator, the 
mass of Chimborazo interrupts the passage of the clouds from 
south to north; so that, while the western slopes are deluged with 
rain, the elevated plains of Riobamba to the east recall to the 
imagination of the traveller the deserts of Arabia Petrea. Fol- 
lowing the same mountain chain towards the city of Quito, we 
observe the storms arrested between Cotopaxi and Pichinca, over 
the valley of Chillo; while two leagues farther to the north, the 
climate of the village of Pomasqui is so dry as to have given it 
the name of Piurita (little Piura. ) 
The manner in which rain is formed and precipitated at vari- 
ous elevations, seems to illustrate and confirm the theory of Leslie. 
In the region of paramos, i. e. from 12,000 feet upwards, the en- 
countering aérial currents, unless in the case of some strong agi- 
tation of the mass of surrounding atmosphere, are of low and 
nearly equal temperature. The rains in consequence assume the 
form of thick drizzling mists, known by the name of paramitos, 
