CLIMATE OF THE PERUVIAN ANDES. 99 



completely different from what might, under ordinary 

 conditions, be expected. I had seen reason to con- 

 jecture that, in ascending from the Pacific coast to 

 the Cordillera, the rate of diminution of mean tem- 

 perature would be less considerable than in most other 

 parts of the world, but I was no way prepared to find 

 it so slight as it really is. During the time of my 

 visit, the mean temperature at Lima, 448 feet above 

 the sea, was very nearly 70°, while the annual mean 

 appears to be (^G'^'' Fahr.* The mean temperature 

 at Chiclaat the same season was estimated by me 

 at 54°, wath a maximum of 65*7'^, and a minimum of 

 42°, and the first figure probably approximates to the 

 annual mean. For a difference in height of 1 1,774 feet 

 this would give an average fall of i^ Fahr. for 935 feet 

 of elevation, or 1° Cent, for 512 metres; whereas, as 



* The only accurate information that I have found respecting the 

 climate of Lima is contained in a paper by Rouand y Paz Soldan, 

 " Resumen de las Observaciones Meteorologicas hechas en Lima 

 durante 1869," quoted in the French translation of Grisebach's 

 "Vegetation du Globe." Reduced to English measures, they give the 

 following results : — 



Mean temperature of four years ... ... ... 66 6° Fahr. 



,, ,, January, 1869 ... ... 74'3° ,, 



July, 1869 57-6° „ 



Rainfall in the year 1869 ... ... ... I3'4 inches. 



,, June, 1869 2"4S 



,, July, 1869 ... • 2'72 



,, August, 1869 2*48 



,, September, 1869 ... ... ... 2*33 



,, October, 1869 2"i6 



,, remaining seven months ... ... i"24 



There i.s reason to think that the temperature for July, 1869, given 

 above was exceptionally low, and although the months during which 

 fogs prevail are abnormally cool for a place within 13° of the equator, 

 I believe that the thermometer rarely falls below 60° Fahr. 



