April 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



NORTHERN PERU. 417 



He says, " It is seldom the thermometer rises higher in the shade than 

 86° to 88° Fahr. in the warmest season, and then only for a few hours 

 in the day, and but for a few months in the year, viz., from about the 

 15th of January to the 15th of April ; moreover, owing to the dryness 

 of the climate, and the constant invigorating sea-breeze or trade-wind, 

 with the thermometer at 90°, the heat is not so oppressive or enervating 

 to the system as in a humid climate with the thermometer 10° to 15° 

 lower. ... I have found my own health better, and my powers of 

 endurance greater than in the warm season in the most healthy parts of 

 the United States." 



He then enters fully into an exposition of his project for irrigating 

 the land by steam-power, and calculates approximately the requisite 

 outlay of capital, the current yearly expenses, and the profits resulting, 

 even although the cotton should not fetch at Payta more than Q\d. the 

 pound. Experiment has shown that these calculations would require 

 to be much modified, the preliminary expenses being greater than he 

 estimated them at, and the crop of cotton so precarious as to vary 

 within very wide limits from one year to another ; yet even so, it seems 

 proved, that so long as the price does not fall below \M. per lb. in 

 England, cotton may be profitably cultivated on the Chira. 



At the very time when Mr. Duvall was putting forth his specula- 

 tions in North America and England, Mr. Stirling had purchased a tract 

 of land on the Chira below Amotape, and begun to set up the requisite 

 machinery, and make the canals for irrigation ; and shortly afterward 

 Mr. Gerald Garland, of Lima, in partnership with Don Pedro Arese, the 

 owner of Tangarara, projected devoting the most fertile portion of that 

 estate (viz., the site above-mentioned of Monte Abierto) to the cultiva- 

 tion of cotton. Mr. Duvall was employed as engineer of the works for 

 irrigation, &c, and immediately after returned to Peru, taking with him 

 from the United States all the needful machinery. As I have seen 

 much more of Mr. Garland's than of Mr. Stirling's cotton farm, I pro- 

 ceed to give some account of what has been effected on the former up 

 to the end of January of the present year (1864), or in two years' time 

 after it was first entered upon. 



Monte Abierto, according to the observations of Mr. Duvall, is in 

 lat 4° 53' S., long. 80° 56' W\, and the variation of the compass was 

 8° 15' E. inl862. The river Chira forms thereabouts several abrupt 

 bends, with long intervening reaches, running N.W. and S.E. ; in 

 former times it has often changed its course, and portions of its deserted 

 beds have a great depth of rich alluvium ; they are called, vegas, like 

 the actual inundated margin of the river. The hills of Mancora are 

 about two leagues away, and stretch from W.S.W. to E.N.E. Deep 

 ravines run from them out into the plain, and along their base are many 

 remains of ancient aqueducts. About half a league down the valley (or 

 to westward) from Mr. Garland's house, are remains of Indian houses 

 and forts, square enclosures sometimes with internal divisions, scattered 



