DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL. 261 



from its course, ascending the valley of the Mississippi, and nourish- 

 ing the western parts of these forests. To the south of lat. 30° the 

 equatorial winds blowing from the east prevail ; and from 35° south- 

 ward from the forest lands of the Rocky Mountains, is the table land 

 of Me.xico, graduating in the north-west into the dry plains of Sonora 

 and California, all bare or nearly bare of wood. From this region, 

 down through the Isthmus of Panama, there are dense forests. 

 These dense forests fork and stretch to some extent along the 

 western coast of South America to Amotape, whence stretches a long 

 strip of dry bare sand ; on the west side of the Andes, which 

 constitute Lower Peru and the north part of Chili, a little to the 

 north of the equator, about midway from both coasts, is the Llanos, 

 (a bare plain of caraccas, nearly fenced round with mountains) ; 

 passing this to eastward, the dense forests follow the coast line, 

 stretching far into the interior, somewhat diminished in densit}', and 

 forming the great region of forest which constitute the basin of the 

 Amazon and occupies all the rest of Brazil. 



" Near the equator the moisture is so excessive that after 150 or 

 200 inches of rain have fallen on the east coast there is still sufficient 

 humidity in the atmosphere to afford copious showers to all the 

 country up to the Andes. Here, therefore, the woods reach from side to 

 side of the continent. But as we recede from the equator the 

 humidity diminishes rapidly, and though the continent becomes 

 narrower towards the south the supply of rain falls off in a still 

 greater proportion, and the forests extend over a much smaller space. 

 At the foot of the Andes the forests extend to 16° or 18° south lat. ; 

 on the east coast, to 25°, probably 30°. Thence, on the east coast 

 are the Pampas, or open lands of Buenos Ayi'es, extending, on the 

 east side of the Andes, from the latitudes mentioned to Cape Horn. 

 ^ " But on the western side of the Andes, extending through the 

 same latitude, are the forests of Chili, where the prevailing winds 

 •which are from the west, coming loaded with the moisture of the 

 Pacific Ocean, produce copious raiuSjto nourish the hei-bage and 

 forests. This applies chiefly to the country south of the 35° parallel. 

 From that to Coquimbo, lat. 30°, the wood is scanty." 



In this, as in the account given by Dr Brandis of the Geographical 

 distribution of forests in India, we find, apart from the facts 

 embodied in the statement, an illustration of a general correspon- 

 dence between the distribution of the rainfall and of forests. 



Independent testimony on the distribution of the rftinfall in 



