386 



CHARLES DARWIN 



ipth. — We anchored in the Bay of Callao, the seaport of 

 Lima, the capital of Peru. We stayed here six weeks, but 

 from the troubled state of public affairs, I saw very little of 

 the country. During our whole visit the climate was far 

 from being so delightful, as it is generally represented. A 

 dull heavy bank of clouds constantly hung over the land, so 

 that during the first sixteen days I had only one view of the 

 Cordillera behind Lima. These mountains, seen in stages, 

 one above the other, through openings in the clouds, had a 

 very grand appearance. It is almost become a proverb, that 

 rain never falls in the lower part of Peru. Yet this can 

 hardly be considered correct; for during almost every day of 

 our visit there was a thick drizzling mist, which was sufficient 

 to make the streets muddy and one's clothes damp: this the 

 people are pleased to call Peruvian dew. That much rain 

 does not fall is very certain, for the houses are covered only 

 with flat roofs made of hardened mud; and on the mole ship- 

 loads of wheat were piled up, being thus left for weeks to- 

 gether without any shelter. 



I cannot say I liked the very little I saw of Peru: in 

 summer, however, it is said that the climate is much pleas- 

 anter. - In all seasons, both inhabitants and foreigners suffer 

 from severe attacks of ague. This disease is common on the 

 whole coast of Peru, but is unknown in the interior. The 

 attacks of illness which arise from miasma never fail to ap- 

 pear most mysterious. So difficult is it to judge from the 

 aspect of a country, whether or not it is healthy, that if a 

 person had been told to choose within the tropics a situation 

 appearing favourable for health, very probably he would 

 have named this coast. The plain round the outskirts of 

 Callao is sparingly covered with a coarse grass, and in some 

 parts there are a few stagnant, though very small, pools of 

 water. The miasma, in all probability, arises from these: 

 for the town of Arica was similarly circumstanced, and its 

 healthiness was much improved by the drainage of some 

 little pools. Miasma is not always produced by a luxuriant 

 vegetation with an ardent climate; for many parts of Bra- 

 zil, even where there are marshes and a rank vegetation, are 

 much more healthy than this sterile coast of Peru. The 

 densest forests in a temgerate climate, as in Chiloe, do not 



