88 THE CLIMATE. 



in our climate only at mid-heaven. The observer will appreciate me when he is told that I have 

 made very fair micrometrical measurements of Venus when the planet was not more than 3 

 above the eastern horizon, and its crescent was more than once seen with the naked eye. At 

 times, the atmosphere was steady as the earth itself; and the colors of close double stars not 

 greater than the twelfth magnitude were satisfactorily distinguished, though the magnifying 

 power was 235, and the telescope fully illuminated for other observations. Such a climate 

 places a small telescope on equality in optical capacity with a much larger one in a moist 

 atmosphere, and there were opportunities to distinguish small objects with our 6^-inch achro- 

 matic, which could only be seen with difficulty with the 20-inch reflector of Sir John 

 Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope. Adopting Maskelyne's ratio between reflectors and 

 achromatics (8:5), the illuminating powers being as the squares of the diameters, our 6^ inches 

 at Santiago was quite equal to 12| inches at the Cape. Early in December, wheat and barley 

 are harvested. After the strawberry, figs and cherries are the next to ripen, the former being 

 somewhat forced by puncturing them with an oiled needle. By Christmas day, melons, apricots,, 

 early nectarines, and one or two other fruits, are brought to market some of them ripe, but 

 more partially green, in which state nearly all fruits and vegetables are gathered. Garden 

 flowers are in their perfection ; dahlias, tuberoses, carnations, diamelos, (Jasminum sambac) 

 jasmines, and a host of others, enable the ladies to exercise freely their graceful and refined 

 custom of sending charming bouquets to friends on their Saint's day. But the hill-sides 

 and uncultivated plain are completely denuded and desolate ; the south wind drives clouds of 

 dust from their surfaces, and the traveller avoids as much as possible the heat of the day, mak- 

 ing his journeys before 9 A. M., or after 4 p. M. 



On the coast the heat is moderated by the ocean. There, the thermometer never rises as high 

 by day, nor falls so low at night, as between the great mountain chains. In three years the 

 temperature at the Exchange of Valparaiso, at 8 A. M., was not lower than 62, nor higher 

 at 4 P. M. than fS , and the mean of all the observations was 'TO . 8. Owing, however, to the 

 imperfect exposure of the instrument, these records can scarcely be regarded as true indices 

 of out-door temperature. Moreover, each district of country has its local peculiarities; so that 

 there is no general law by which observations made at a particular hour can be reduced to the 

 mean temperature of that place upon the application of the correction found for any other sta- 

 tion. Obtaining a correction for stations with whose latitude and chorography there is least 

 contrast, the average temperature from the Valparaiso observations will not be far from 6. 5 

 in excess of true summer heat, or nearly 5 below that of Santiago. If it has the advantage oi 

 a lower temperature, the southerly winds quite counterbalance it by their greater violence, and 

 the annoyance of clouds of fine sand which they whirl from hills in the rear of the town. Some- 

 times they are so furious as to prevent vessels from reaching an anchorage in the bay. Though 

 it is well known that they are equally constant at a little distance from the land from Chiloe 

 to Lima, and draw more "from the westward outside of the islands of Juan Fernandez, their 

 entire limits have never been satisfactorily ascertained. North of Valparaiso, and within a few 

 leagues of the land, they are feebler by day, and the land breeze replaces them at night. Even 

 in summer, fogs over the land are not uncommon. 



Coquimbo also enjoys at this season a cooler and more agreeable atmosphere than Santiago. 

 The mean of the observations at the selected hours are there in excess of the mean for the 

 day 3. 2, which, applied to Sen or Troncoso's results, shows a summer temperature of only 

 63. 6. During the seasons of 1849 and 1850, the range of the thermometer between 8 and 9 

 A. M. and 9 and 10 p. M. did not exceed 16. 8 ; the barometer quite steady, and the atmosphere 

 often cloudy. This last fact is obtained from his notices of earthquakes, which, omitting April 

 and November, are more frequent than during any other months ; and it is greatly to be re- 

 gretted that there is no diurnal record from which to decide whether the clouds that accompany 

 or almost immediately follow these subterranean disturbances have been only coincidences. 

 From daily observations at Concepcion during the summer of 1850, the temperature at 3 P. M. 



