Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/114



84 FROM RIO DE JANEIRO TO MONTE VIDEO.

Sienna â€” is expected to bring from the south-east a gale which tosses up mountains of sand^ and which has thrown ships amongst and over the house-tops. Consulting the register for the last few years, I find the Saintess unpunc- tual as Saint S within : in fact the phenomenon must be reduced to a mere equinoctial disturbance. Arno is in luck as long as she keeps this cold,, raw north-easter which holds up the rain. If the breeze falls, and the sea is lulled, she must look out for the Pampero or Prairie wind, a Harmattan, a Khamsin, whose very name makes the flesh of the timid chilly creep, and which whizzes, they say, through their bones.

You will accept a few words about this meteor, the only health officer of Platine cities, the maintainer of atmo- spheric circulation, and, according to M. Bravard, the great builder of the Pampas. The Pampero, which ranges from south-west to south- south-west, is as usual more felt in countries towards which it blows than in the regions where it rises. It is of two kinds â€” clean and dirty. The ^' Lim- pio,^" after threatening rain, sweeps the sky bright and clear. The rheumatic gale is cutting as a Kent-coast black caster, and sailors complain that the Plate appears to them after the relaxing heat of Kio, the bitterest place they know. But it is a true relief in the seething summer ; it forms a break of invigorating freshness : cold and consequently dry, it renders even Buenos Aires of the fetid airs inhabitable. The Pampero Sucio comes out from a horizontal line of sable cloud, like the arch of the West-African tornado down-flattened; and whilst the curtain creeps up to the zenith, the storm-wind with a rush and a roar swoops down upon the world of waters. It brings thunder closely fol- lowing the flash, which is peculiarly tremulous and persistent, whilst ascending balls are common : such lightning is dangerous on the Pampas, as on the North American Prairies.