Gh. i. SODtrt AMERICA. go^ 



operations it undergoes, affords employment for fuch 

 multitudes of people. Some farmers make it theif 

 fole bufmefs to breed dows, principally for the advan^ 

 tages they derive from their milk in making cheefe 

 and butter. In other farm-houfes you fee various oc- 

 cupations carried on at the fame time, namely, the 

 breeding of cattle, agriculture, and manufadures, par- 

 ticularly of cloth, bays, and ferges. 



From what has been faid, it is evident, that nei- 

 ther this, nor the preceding jurifdid:i6n, has any ge« 

 neral temperature, the degree of cold and heat de-^ 

 pending oh the (ituation ; and that to this difference 

 is owing the delightful, arid even ptrofitable variety of 

 all kinds of fruits and grains, each fiildirig here a 

 temperature agreeable to its nature. Accordingly, in 

 travelling only half a day, you pafs from a climate 

 where the heat fufficiently indicates that you are in 

 the torrid zone, to another where you feel all the hor- 

 rors of winter. And what is Hill more finglllar, and 

 may be efteemcd an advantage, no change occurs 

 during the whole year ; the temperate parts never 

 feeling the viciffitudes of cold and he^t. This, how- 

 cver^ mufl: be allowed not to hold precifely with re- 

 gard to the mountainous parts, the coldnefs of which 

 is increafed by the violence of the winds^ or a change 

 of weather, called tiempo de paramos, when the clouds 

 involve the greateft part of thefe mountains, and pre- 

 cipitate themfeives in a fleet ; at which time the cold 

 becomes intolerable : and, on the other hand,- wheii 

 thofe frigorific clouds are difperfed, and the wind al- 

 layed, fo that the rays of the fun reach the earth, they 

 feel the comfortable heat of his cheating beams. 



Most of thefe villages are built with very little re- 

 gularity. The principal part of them is the chufch 

 and parfonage, which they call the convent, from' the 

 priefts being all formerly religious. Thefe fcrudures 

 have fome appearance of decency : but the other parish 

 6f the village confift of a number of huts with miid-^ 



Vol. I. X walls. 



