INFLUENCE OF MOUNTAINS ON CLIMATE. 397 



atmosphere, as the winds flow over the summits of the 

 snowy range wrings them so completely dry of moisture 

 that the snow-fall is very much less upon the northern 

 slopes of the Himalayas than it is upon their southern face. 



But it is perhaps in South America where this may 

 be witnessed in the most striking form of all. To the 

 eastward of the Cordilleras the climate is for the most 

 part of an exceedingly damp and rainy character, and the 

 luxuriance of the tropical forest growth upon their eastern 

 slopes is therefore correspondingly conspicuous, yet 

 the winds in crossing the snow-clad heights so com- 

 pletely lose their water-bearing capacity, that almost 

 no rain falls to the westward and much of the country 

 in Peru, Bolivia, and Northern Chili, is in consequence 

 perishing for want of water. It is in fact impossible 

 to conceive two countries more essentially different in 

 appearance and climate than those lying in the same 

 parallel of latitude, to the eastward, and to the west- 

 ward, of the Andes. At Lima, the capital of Peru, 

 for instance, though if we mistake not we once saw 

 a shower fall there, it is said that, scarcely a drop of rain 

 ever falls, though there is now and then a strong dew, as 

 may be perceived of a morning by the still moist roofs. 



Nearly the whole of the plains country in Peru is subject 

 to these extraordinary droughts, and constitutes what 

 may almost be termed a rainless district. " Long intervals 

 of time succeed each other without a sin gle drop of rain 

 falling on the thirsty soil, and showers are as rare phenom- 

 ena as the appearance of a comet, or an earthquake. " * 



Bolivia, the adjoining republic to the southwards, is 

 even still more afflicted by drought, and a great deal 



* Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel in Central and 

 South America. Edited by H. W. Bates, 1878, p. 269. 



