90 THE CLIMATE. 



from 29.99 to 29.92 inches. The mean of all the noon observations is 29.973 inches, and both 

 extremes of pressure occur with northerly winds. 



At San Carlos, (Ancud,) from January 18th to February 4th, 1835, the barometer at noon 

 was never lower than 29.95 inches, nor higher than 30.03 inches ; mean, reduced to 32 Fahren- 

 heit, 29.917 inches. There was a due proportion of fair weather, though moderate winds pre- 

 vailed from the northward and westward, and there were only three days when it blew from 

 S.W. The thermometric variation at the same hour was from 50 to 68 the former tempera- 

 ture with a wind from S.W., and the latter with one from W.S.W. The mean at noon, 57. 3. 

 Such temperature scarcely confirms the experience of Agiieros, who says : " Chiloe has its four 

 seasons, but does not enjoy the benefit of those changes as do other parts of Chile ; for there is 

 neither that abundance of fruit, nor are its fields adorned with so many and such beautiful 

 flowers and useful medicinal plants. The summer is the most pleasant season ; for though, in 

 the month of January, it is excessively hot from 10 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon, 

 there is a sea-breeze during those hours, called ' virazon,' which refreshes the air. At this 

 time the day is from seventeen to eighteen hours long, and conversely in winter. * * * The 

 weather, when it is fine, cannot be depended on for any length of time ; for, in the month of 

 January I have frequently seen rains as copious and gales as violent as in the winter. During 

 the summer months, southerly winds are more prevalent ; and while they last, the weather is 

 fine and clear, and the air particularly dry." Capt. King found the first half of December, 

 1829, tempestuous and wet; but it proved scarcely one-third as bad as he had experienced at 

 St. Martin's Cove, near Cape Horn. During the preceding month the range of temperature 

 had been from 42 to 68. 5, and the mean at 9 A. M. 53. 5. At Hobarton, (Van Dieman's 

 land,) which does not differ much in latitude, the temperature of November, at 9 A. M., exceeds 

 the mean annual heat 6. 65 ; that of February, at noon, is 7. 89 greater ; and supposing these 

 corrections approximate, the mean temperature of the northern extremity of Chiloe will not 

 vary greatly from 48. 



Autumn in the province of Santiago is not less charming than the other seasons of this so 

 favored region a country in whose soil and climate vegetation typical of the torrid and tem- 

 perate zones, side by side, thrive equally. The native palm and pine of Araucania the 

 cherimoya of tropical America and the medlar of Japan the magnolia of Florida and the olive 

 of Asia, may all be found within the compass of a garden, not less luxuriant in their propor- 

 tions and ever-verdant foliage than under the climes of their origin. 



All through March, and the larger half of April, unexceptionable fine weather lasts, though 

 the atmosphere is less transparent by day than during the other seasons, and copious dews at 

 night show its increasing relative humidity. About the close of the former month, or in the 

 first half of the latter, there are usually from ten to fifteen days when it assumes that peculiar 

 appearance between smoke and dry fog which is so notable at the " Indian summer" of North 

 America. During its continuance there is scarcely any wind ; and, as the temperature after 

 noon rises to summer heat, with its fresh southerly breeze, the air is more enervating than at 

 the latter season. Here the resemblance between the two hemispheres ceases. Unlike the 

 North American " Indian summer," of which, its continuity once broken, there is no return 

 until the following year, the Chilean " verano de San Juan"* is often interrupted by a renewal 

 of the periodic winds with greater force, or by clouds ; and after a day or two, there succeeds 

 another interval when the air is tranquil and smoky. 



Even the moderate daily breezes from the S.W. lose their strength in autumn, and el terral 

 is frequently replaced by one from the Western Cordilleras, though the direction of the daily 

 surface current is rarely doubtful. The mean atmospheric pressure is 28.065 inches, and the 

 extreme of its mean daily fluctuations 0.039 inch; its periods of maxima and minima conform- 



* St. John's summer. So named in the Argentine republic, though St. John's day is June 24th. I never heard a Chileiio 

 designate it. 



