320 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



1864, during a terrible hurricane, five days after the great hurri- 

 cane of Calcutta, and after the extraordinary cold in France from 

 October 2 to 4, 1864, consequently during a considerable 

 atmospheric disturbance, whose action had extended to very 

 distant parts of the globe. This fall was extraordinary, accom- 

 panied by a violent storm, and a wind by which, at certain places, 

 venerable trees were uprooted. I was not then at Rio, but I 

 knew that there occurred in that place hailstones as thick as one's 

 thumb. Since that time there have been no heavy falls of hail 

 (up to 187 1), but only twice a few small hailstones in some storms. 

 Hail may thus be considered as an exceptional phenomenon at 

 Rio de Janeiro, and on the plateau of Minas Geraes as an 

 habitual phenomenon. At the north of the empire, falls of hail 

 are almost unknown."* 



Storms and Rain. 



" Storms are excessively frequent in summer at Rio de 

 Janeiro and in the province of Minas Geraes. There is some- 

 times magnificent lightning, not only bifurcated, but with a con- 

 siderable number of branches; and the discharges are repeated 

 occasionally, from the same point, seven or eight times in a 

 second. The frequency of storms diminishes considerably on 

 approaching the north. At Pernambuco, during eight months, 

 I only saw hghtning twice ; and I have never heard thunder. 



" In Rio de Janeiro, and on the coast of Espirito Santo, it 

 rains every season of the year ; but, as a rule, much more in 

 summer, and less in winter. Generally, the dryest months are 

 June, July, and August. In the whole of the interior of Brazil, 

 these months are always invariably dry, and the seasons divide 

 into two : the time of rain from October to March, the dry season 

 from April to September. . . . On the coast of Pernambuco, the 

 rains are specially abundant in the months of June, July, and 

 August, which are the dry months in the south.'' M. Liais enters 

 at length into an explanation of this curious inversion of climate, 

 which is briefly as follows : — From the lofty table-lands of the 

 interior, when heated by the midsummer vertical sun, arise cur- 



* During the ten months that I was in Minas, I never remarked any hail 

 accompanying the tremendous thunderstorms. 



