Ch. IV. SOUTH A M ER I C A. 231 



every object on the other fide of it : and the cautious 

 mariner forbears to make his way through it, being un- 

 certain whether he fliall meet with clearer weather, as 

 he approaches nearer to the coaft. 



These winter fogs on the coaft of Chili, feem to 

 be occafioned by the north winds ; they being ob- 

 ferved always to thicken when thofe winds blow ; and 

 though the atmofphere be clear when the wind fhifts 

 to that quarter, it is inflantaneoufly filled with thofe 

 vapours ; which continue without any diminution, 

 till the S. winds fet in, and have blown fredi for two 

 or three days fuccelTively. But as in winter they are 

 ufually interrupted by the winds at N. W. and S. 

 W. thefe vapours, fo inconvenient to commerce, are 

 fcldom totally difperfed ; and it is a common phrafe 

 among the mariners of thcfe parts, that the N. is a 

 filthy wind on account of the dilagreeable vapours, 

 with which it is loaded, and the S. is a cleanly wind, 

 fweeping thefe nuifances from the coaft and country, 

 and purifying the air. I call thefe winter fogs, as 

 they are equally common all along the coaft from the 

 parallel of twenty to the equinox, where no N. winds 

 are known. And as I have already related of Lima, 

 all the inhabitants of the coaft, live, during the vvin- 

 ter, in a perpetual fog. 



I SHALL conclude this chapter, with a table of the 

 variations of the needle obferved in my fecond voyage, 

 in the frigate La Delivrance, from Callao, to Concep- 

 tion Bay. 



South Lat. Long,^ from Callao. Variations and their 



kinds. 



Deg. 



min. 



Deg, 



min. 



Deg. 



min. 



22 



i3i 



35i 



03 



7 



58 E. 



25 



37f 



349 



5' 



9 



22 



28 



27 



34^ 



46 



9 



42 . 





ro 



350 



45 J 



9 



5S 







J Book I. 



Chap. VI. 











0.4 







32 



