Colomlia heiween the Years 1820 a7id 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 j 

 while the Goagira territory, situated betwixt Rio Hacha and Mar- 

 acaybo, is regularly inundated every year, and consequently, 

 though destitute of streams^ maiiitains considerable herds of cat- 

 tle and horses ; a circumstance to be ascribed to the vicinity of 

 the Ocana 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 sev^eral 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 Petrsea. 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 

 cUmate 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 o( paramos^ i. e. from 12;000 feet upwards, the en- 

 covmtering aerial 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 oi paramitos. 



