310 STREAMS, LAKE YURIRAPUNDARO, CLIMATE, EFFECT OF 



really merits this name in the State, and crosses the southern por- 

 tion of it for near 35 leagues. The river Laja and the river Turbio 

 are of less consequence ; and all the other streams, though gen- 

 erally known among the people of these districts by the dignified 

 title of rivers, scarcely merit a higher position among the fluvial 

 characteristics of the State than brooks or mountain torrents, which 

 only obtainreal consideration when they are swollen by heavy rains. 



The lake of Yurirapundaro, is the only one which belongs to this 

 State; — it is four leagues long by one and a half in width, and 

 embosoms several islands. Its sweet waters are filled with small 

 fish, which are taken daily by the Jndians, for the markets of the 

 neighborhood and the capital, but its actual depth is unknown. 



The climate of Guanajuato is genial, its sky nearly always clear, 

 and its atmosphere pure. Owing to its site, immediately north of 

 the torrid zone, the inhabitants do not suffer the extremes of heat or 

 cold. Elevated about 8,000 feet above the level of the sea, its 

 rarefied atmosphere counteracts the direct rays of the sun, so that 

 its mean temperature is 21° of the centigrade thermometer, whilst it 

 never exceeds 28° in the months between April and June, which 

 are generally reckoned the warmest in this part of the Republic. 

 During this season the rain usually begins to fall, and lowers the 

 temperature agreeably. The north wind prevails during the greater 

 part of the year ; yet near the period of the annual rains it changes 

 for a while to the south, bringing with it an abundance of moist 

 vapor to fertilize the soil. Nothing is sadder for the people of 

 Guanajuato and the adjacent States than to find, as sometimes hap- 

 pens, the months passing without this customary change of wind. 

 In such years the crops fail ; the prices of grain consequently rise, 

 and the poor classes sufTer extremely. The year 1786, is known in 

 the annals of this region, as one well remembered still for the famine 

 that prevailed in consequence of a severe frost that occurred on the 

 28th of the preceding August, blighting the prospects of the farmer, 

 and carrying off 8,000 victims in the capital and the adjacent mines 

 alone. In the month of May agriculture often suffers from violent 

 hail storms that prostrate the young grain which at this season of 

 the year is usually extremely dry in consequence of the early heats 

 and the want of irrigation. 



The mild and pure climate of Guanajuato renders it a healthy 

 residence. In its southern part, about Salvatierra and Yurirapun- 

 daro, intermittent fevers, called los frios, or agues, occasionally pre- 

 vail. Dropsy, rheumatism, common fever, and dysenteries, which 

 usually sweep off large numbers of Mexicans, are milder and more 



