ON THE PACIFIC COAST 317 
very healthy, but now almost uninhabited. The 
little towns along the coast to northward are also 
healthy, and noted for the longevity of their 
inhabitants. 
The vegetable products of cool regions become 
excessively scarce and dear here in the rainy 
season, when all import of goods from the highlands 
of the Andes is suspended, although those moun- 
tains lie within sight when the weather is clear. 
At Daule potatoes were sold at 2^d. and apples 
at 5d. apiece ; while at the same time potatoes were 
selling at Ambato, only 80 miles away, at is. 3d. 
the sack. 
To Mr. John Teas dale 
Chanduy, near Guayaquil, May 14, 1862. 
. . . The rains — or, as we say here, the winter — 
came on at Chonana in the middle of January, when 
I descended to Guayaquil, and shortly afterwards 
went on to Chanduy — a small village on the shores 
of the Pacific, at 2^ days' journey by sea from 
Guayaquil, and a little north of the island of Puna. 
Here it scarcely ever rains, beyond a slight drizzle 
in the morning, occasionally — the same as at Lima — 
and throughout the year 1861 there was but one 
day of heavy rain. This present year, however, 
we have had a real rainy season that began in 
February and lasted through most of March. It 
has been the first rainy season since 1845, and 
we had actually one night a thunderstorm, a 
phenomenon that had not previously been witnessed 
here by even "the oldest inhabitant" (and there 
are some centenarians). With so dry a climate 
normally, you may w^ell suppose the vegetation is 
