MODERATE HEAT IN THE TROPICS. 89 



finde any springs, but some deepe welles. But with the LlB - IT - 

 helpe of God, wee will shew the reason why it raineth not 

 in these llanos (the which many demand) ; for now I onely 

 pretend to shew that there are many exceptions to naturall 

 rules, whereby it may happen that in some part of the 

 burning Zone it raines not when the sunne is neerest, but 

 being farthest off, although vnto this daie I have neither 

 seene nor heard of it ; but if it be so, wee must attribute it 

 to the particular qualitie of the earth ; and also, if sometimes 

 the contrarie doth chance, we must have regard that in 

 naturall things there happens many contrarieties and lets, 

 whereby they change and dissolve one another. For 

 example, it may be the sunne will cause raine, and that the 

 winds will hinder it, or else cause more aboundance then 

 hath been vsuall. The windes have their properties and 

 divers beginnings, by the which they worke divers effects, 

 the which are most commonly contrarie to that which the 

 order and season requires. Seeing then in all places we see 

 great varieties in the yeere, which proceedes from the divers 

 motions and aspectes of Planets, it is not out of purpose to 

 say, that in the burning Zone wee may see and observe 

 some things contrarie to that we have tried. But to con 

 clude, that which we have spoken is a certaine and vn- 

 doubted truth, which is, that the great draught which the 

 Ancients held to be in the middle region, which they call 

 the burning Zone, is nothing at all ; but, contrariwise, there 

 is great humiditie, and then it raines most when the sunne 

 is iieerest. 



CHAP. ix. That the Burning Zone is not violently liotte, but 



moderate. 



Hitherto wee haue treated of the humiditie of the Burning 

 Zone, now it shall be fit to discourse of the other two 



