40 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP PERU. 



Replies to the above questions relative to the different phe- 

 nomena which are observed in Peru. 



Notwithstanding the person who is solicited to make the 

 replies, has not himself been in the low parts of Peru, where it 

 never rains, still the communication he has had with several 

 individuals who have resided there for a great length of time, 

 enables him to speak satisfa6torily to several of the questions ; 

 and he does this with the greater pleasure, from a convidlion 

 that investigations of such a nature tend to the advancement of 

 the natural sciences, and the welfare of the human race. 



1. In low Peru, that is, throughout the extent of the occi- 

 dental coast of South America, situated towards the part 

 of the Andes which takes a western direction, commonly 

 called the valley of Tumbes, comprehended between five and 

 fifteen degrees of south latitude, rain has never been known 

 to fall. 



2. The whole of this tra6l of territory is constantly sheltered 

 from the east winds by the cordilleras of mountains named the 

 Andes. 



3. The height of those mountains, employing a mean pro- 

 portion, is estimated at fifteen thousand feet above the level of 

 the sea ; there are, however, several peaks which rise higher 

 than the rest, and have, unquestionably, an elevation of more 

 than twenty thousand feet. 



4. The summits of the above-mentioned mountains are 

 commonly covered with clouds, except during the months of 

 January, February, and March, in the northern part of the 

 Cordillera, when it usually happens that the fogs and clouds 

 disappear altogether, the tops of the mountains being covered 

 with snow. The clouds by which they are overspread during 



the 



