314 The National Geographic Magazine 



satisfied with the climate of the coast, 

 and desire cooler or even cold weather, 

 have but to ascend the roads leading 

 toward the Andes, the heat, of course, 

 diminishing gradually as the higher alti- 

 tudes are reached. On the Sierra it is 

 as cool as in the south of England, on 

 the coast it is as warm as in the south of 

 France, and it is not very much warmer 

 on the Montana, while on the Puna or 

 high plateaus it is as cold as in northern 

 Scotland. The following table gives the 

 mean annual temperature of the three 

 zones at three different points : 



Coast : 



Fiura 77° Fahr. 



Lima 66° " 



Moquegua 63 ' ' 



Sierra : 



Cajamarca 52 " 



Huaraz 59 



Arequipa .. 57 " 



Montana : 



Iquitos. . . 75° ' ' 



Huanuco 74° ' ' 



Santa Ana 72 " 



The Sierra is subject to rain in the 

 summer and snow in the winter. Sir 

 Clements R. Markham, writing on a 

 typical Sierra town, says : 



' ' From Cerro de Pasco there is a con- 

 siderable descent southwards to the city 

 of Jauja, the climate of which is said to 

 be almost perfect for patients with pul- 

 monary complaints. It is a charming 

 little Sierra town, beautifully situated in 

 an amphitheater of mountains, clothed 

 to their summits with waving fields of 

 barley The climate is delightful." 



This important problem of the cure 

 of consumption, which today so greatly 

 preoccupies the attention of scientists, 

 has been to a great extent solved in 

 Pern, where doctors are unanimous in 

 recommending a sojourn at Jauja to all 

 those whose lungs are not sound. The 

 construction of a sanatorium in the town 

 of Jauja is projected. 



In the Montana there are two sea- 

 sons — the dry, which lasts from May 



to October, and the wet, from Novem- 

 ber to April. 



Professor Orton, speaking of a Mon- 

 tana town, says : 



' ' The city of Moyobamba stands in a 

 most luxuriant place, with an altitude 

 of about 2,700 feet and a mean annual 

 temperature of 77 ° Fahr. The climate 

 is delightful. Nature is so prodigal that 

 everybody can get a living — except phy- 

 sicians." 



Mr. Notzli, M. E., writing of the 

 same district, says : 



"I have lived fifteen years in Caja- 

 marca and in the Amazon provinces. 

 The country is exceedingly healthy ; I 

 have never experienced any illness what- 

 ever. ' ' 



The Montana, or forest region, is a 

 zone but little known, except along the 

 borders of the rivers that are constantly 

 navigated by the rubber hunters. Cov- 

 ered throughout by virgin forests rich 

 in all of the tropical products and trav- 

 ersed by a network of navigable rivers, 

 it is undoubtedly the land of the future. 

 Referring to this region, Humboldt 

 wrote: "The headwaters of the Amazon 

 sooner or later will be the center of the 

 world's colonization." 



On the coast wherever water has been 

 obtained, either from the rivers flowing 

 from the Andes or from artesian wells, 

 the land becomes a veritable oasis cov- 

 ered by a rich and varied vegetation. 

 Artificial irrigation alone is needed to 

 produce fields of surprising fertility. 

 The government has under study many 

 problems of irrigation for the purpose 

 of regaining little by little the desert 

 sands. I may say that an expert from 

 the U. S. Geological Survey and an 

 assistant have been engaged by the gov- 

 ernment to study subterranean water- 

 courses and the artesian- well problem, 

 of vital importance to man)' provinces. 



The plantations get their water gen- 

 erally during the summer months, when 

 the floods rush down the streams. In 

 certain departments, like lea and Piura, 



