THK CLIMATK. 7'. 



nowhere exceeds 40 miles. Geographically, the city is five degrees beyond the tropic of Cap- 

 ricorn, inn! ii"t tin- from tin- centre of the republic. 



Tliinv \ears ago, rain was never expect. -<| until the early part of May, nor a continuance of 

 showers before the middle of June. From tin- latt.-i epoch, until the close of Augtut, there 



\\ere often five- to ei^ht successive <lavs when rain I'.-ll h-avily -lui iirj- inaux hOU - | airl M \m 



for each hour was no extraordinary deposit. But at the time of our arrival, and tmW-quently, 

 the change in their climate was the subject of common conversation; and the fact that rain 

 fell during nearly every month of our resilience, was good <-\ ioVn< in support of the popular 

 belief. A register, which had been kept through twenty-seven years, showed that the average 

 number of hours, per year, during which rain had fallen in the city, between 1824 and 1850, 

 was 215, or nine entire days. These were distributed as follows : 



A. m. A. m. A. m. A.m. 



June 56 33 September . . . 10 20 December ... 1 43 Marrti .... IX 



July 48 11 October . . . . 11 45 January .... 9 00* April 11 31 



August . . . . 29 88 November ... 2 OS J-Ybruary . . . 18 May 34 2* 



The most remarkable years were 1832 and 1843, in the former of which the precipitation 

 was only during ninety-nine and a half hours; and in the latter, during three hundred and 

 ninety hours, distributed through every month of the year. Senor Reyes, by whom the register 

 was kept, had no instrument for measuring the quantity of water; and, unfortunately, he lias 

 omitted all other data than those from which the preceding results are compiled. When his 

 register was commenced, the immediate plain to the southward of the city was little better 

 than a desert. Some three or four garden-spots, and a few dwarf Acacia cavenias, offered the 

 only green spots away from the banks of the river ; and the S.W. wind, which swept across 

 it, came loaded with heat reflected from the arid surface. Till then, there was no mode of 

 irrigating most of tbe tract ; and it was long after the canal was cut to convey water from the 

 Maypu, along the base of the Andes, to the Mapocho, before its value was properly estimated. 

 Contemporaneously, a few slips of Lombardy poplar were introduced from Mendoza ; ten thou- 

 sand minor rivulets were led from the canal across the valley ; in every direction the land 

 was gradually brought under cultivation ; poplars and vineyards rose as by magic on every part 

 of it ; and now, wherever the eye turns, there are groves of trees and verdant fields. These 

 give out a part of the moisture introduced for their fructification ; and clouds by day, and rains 

 out of season, in following a law of nature, must increase with their multiplication. 



So long as the wind continues from the south, no precipitation of moisture takes place. If it 

 comes from the east of south, the sky remains clear, and frosts are probable ; but within an 

 hour or two after, it changes to north or N.W., the temperature rises, a dense jsheet of vapor is 

 seen pouring over the coast range into the valley, and rain soon follows. When the earth has 

 become saturated after successive days of storm, one may often observe the formation of clouds, 

 and their precipitation in rain, within ten minutes of each other. As the vapor from the sea 

 comes into the valley, it meets a warmer air near the surface, expands, rises, and is lost to 

 sight. It is still moving in the same direction, however ; and on encountering the cold current 

 from the Andes, condensation ensues so rapidly that in less time than it has occupied to write 

 of it the fleecy nebula we saw originate a mile to the N.W. is sprinkling its waters over us. 

 At a moderate elevation on the mountains, the rain-storms are converted into snows ; and snow 

 is often seen falling there whilst the valley is enjoying good weather. Occasionally the latter 

 has been known to fall in the city, though it never remains more than a few hours on the ground. 

 The amount of water deposited during some of these temporales (as they are called) is quite 

 surprising as much as fifteen inches having fallen in June of 1850. During the same months 

 of 1851 and 1852 the quantities were respectively two and a half and ten and a quarter inches. 

 Our observations furnish results only for two completed years 1850 and 1851 ; during which 

 the quantities measured by the gauge amounted to 56.032 inches in the former, and 39.238 



* A result produced by forty hours of rain, iu Ib37. 



