100 LAND AND SEE BEEEZES. 



LIB. ii. v au it O f s tone. Moreover, why are not the nightes in 

 summer at Peru as hotte and troublesome as in Spaine ? 

 Wherefore on the highest tops of mountaines, even amongst 

 the heaps of snow, you shall sometimes feele great and in 

 supportable heat ? Wherefore in all the Province of Collao, 

 when ye come into the shade, how little soever, you feele 

 colde, but,, comming into the Sunne beames, you presently 

 finde the heate excessive ? Why is all the coast of Peru, 

 being ful of sands, very temperate ? And why is Potosi 

 (distant from the silver Citie but eighteene leagues, and in 

 the same degree) of so divers a temperature that the Coun- 

 trie, being extreamely colde, it is wonderfully barren and 

 drie ? And contrariwise, the silver Citie is temperate, in 

 clining vnto heat, and hath a pleasant and fertil soil ? It 

 is more certaine that the winde is the principall cause of 

 these strange diversities, for without the benefite of these 

 coole windes the heate of the Sunne is such as (although it 

 bee in the midst of the snow) it burnes and sets all on fire ; 

 but when the coolenes of the aire returnes suddenly the heat 

 is qualified, how great soever it be ; and whereas this coole 

 winde raincs ordinarie, it keepes the grosse vapours and ex 

 halations of the earth from gathering together, which cause 

 a heavie and troublesome heat, whereof we see the contrarie 

 in Europe, for by the exhalation of these vapours the earth 

 is almost burnt vp with the Sunne by day, which makes the 

 nights so hotte and troublesome, as the aire doth often seeme 

 like vnto a furnace. For this reason, at Peru, this freslmcs 

 of the winde is the cause (by the meanes of some small 

 shade at the Sunne setting) that they remaine coole. But 

 contrariwise in Europe the most agreeable and pleasing 

 time in summer is the morning, and the evening is the 

 most hotte and troublesome. But at Peru, and vnder all 

 the Equinoctiall it is not so ; for every morning the winde 

 from the sea doth cease, and the Sunne beginnes to cast 

 his beanies, and for this reason they feele the greatest heat 



