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THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC 



The year is divided into two seasons, summer and winter. 

 Towards the close of April, the fogs become dense, and cover 

 the sky, day and night ; the mists commence, and continue, in 

 damp years, without interruption, till the sun approaches the 

 solstice, when the days become clear and warm ; the vapors 

 are dissipated, and we have the veranito de San Juan" — the 

 little summer of St. John, answering to the Indian summer of 

 the autumn in the United States. This passes away, and in the 

 months of July and August, prevail the heavy mists, called, 

 in the native language of the Incas, gdrua, and by foreigners, 

 ironically, Peruvian dew." The weather is then cool, but 

 fires are never required to sit by, though the necessity of them 

 is sometimes discussed by strangers. 



Why it never rains in Lima, nor along the coast, from Lat. 

 6°S. to 23° S., may be thus explained. The aqueous vapors 

 constantly raised from the Pacific, immediately after formation, 

 are attracted by the mountains, or forced there by the prevail- 

 ing winds, but instead of bursting in showers, undergo a sort 

 of leakage, because the clouds float so low, that the minute par- 

 ticles of mist do not fall far enough to form distinct drops. Yet 

 this may be owing rather to the electrical condition and rela- 

 tions of the mountains and valleys, than to an attracting power. 

 However, the phenomenon ceases in the western regions, be- 

 yond the influence of the Cordilleras. It has been remarked 

 by Dr. Unanue, that the great rains of the Andes are the re- 

 sult of the vaporization of the Pacific ; and that, as a conse- 

 quence, are formed the great rivers, emptying into the Atlantic; 

 thus, through the air, by the intervention of the mountains, the 

 former becomes a tributary to the latter Ocean. The birth of 

 the Amazon and the La Plata, may have been the ruin of the 

 fabled land of Atlantis. 



Notwithstanding that it is so agreeable to the senses, the 

 climate of Lima is enervating j and previous to acclimation, fo- 

 reigners are very obnoxious to diseases of the liver and diges- 

 tive organs, for which, in many instances, nothing is efiectual 

 but changing it for the more genial skies of Chile. 



Lima is laid out in equal squares of four hundred feet, divid- 

 ed by streets thirty-three £iiid a half feet wide, which intersect 



