DEY REGIONS IN THE TROPICS. 



LIB. it. fj ie re j s mo ^ era te, and the meat in an equall distance,, we 

 see that it rostes hansomely, and the fatte drops not too 

 suddenly, for that the moderate heat drawes out the moist- 

 ncs which it consumes suddenly. And therefore Cookes 

 make a moderate fire, and lay not their meate too neere nor 

 too farre off, lest it melt away. The like may be seene in 

 another experience, in candles of tallow or waxe : if the wike 

 Lee great, it melts the tallow or the waxe, for that the heat 

 cannot consume the moistnes which riseth ; but if the flame 

 be proportionable, the waxe melts nor droppes not, for that 

 the flame doth waste it by little and little as it riseth. The 

 which seemeth to me the true reason, why vnder the Equi -- 

 noctiall and burning Zone, the violence of the heat doth 

 cause raine, the which in other Regions growes through 

 want thereof. 



CHAP. vin. How wee should vnder stand that which hath 

 been formerly spoken of the burning Zone. 



If in naturall and phi si call things we must not seeke out 

 infallible and mathematicall rules, but that which is ordi- 

 narie and tried by experience, which is the most perfect 

 rule, wee must then beleeve what wee have said, that there 

 is more humiditie vnder the burning Zone then in other 

 Regions ; and that it raines lesse there, when the sunne is 

 iieerest, must be taken and vnderstood after one sort, as in 

 truth it is the most common and ordinarie. But this is not 

 to hinder the exceptions which nature hath given to this 

 rule, making some Regions of the burning Zone extreamely 

 drie. The which is reported of Ethiopia, and wee have 

 seene it in a great part of Peru, where all that land or 

 coast, which they call llanos, wants raine, yea, land waters, 

 except some vallies, where rivers fall from the mountaines ; 

 the rest is a sandie and barren soile, where you shall hardly 



