Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/515

Rh nearly parallel to the coast at a distance of perhaps sixty or seventy miles in an air line. The amount of cloudiness at different distances from the coast varies enormously. A different cloud system prevails on the coast from that in the mountains. The rainy season in the mountains is from November or December to March or April, more or less in different years. Toward the coast the rainfall grows less, while, in general, little or no rain falls within thirty or forty miles of the ocean. In Lima there is no rainy season, but there is an extremely cloudy season. This is due to the low cloud which is found more or less along the whole coast. This coast cloud is most prevalent from May to November. Throughout a large part of the year, however, the coast region of Peru, though almost rainless, is very cloudy. It seemed, therefore, that while the lofty clouds which cause the rainy season in the interior are gradually dissipated many miles from the coast, and the dense coast cloud never extends far away from the ocean, a situation chosen between these two, if such were possible, might, perhaps, escape both. With these ideas in mind a site was selected on an isolated summit, at a distance of about twenty-five miles from the coast, and at an elevation of six thousand five hundred feet.

The provisional station thus selected was at a distance of about eight miles from the village and hotel of Chosica, in the Rimac Valley, from which all supplies, of both food and water, were obtained. The residents of the hotel were our nearest neighbors, with the exception of occasional wandering herdsmen. In many ways it was an ideal location. It was named Mount Harvard, and became well known in Peru. The outlook was superb. To the east the ranges rose ever higher and higher to the Great Andes; to the west they fell away in numberless crests and wavy lines to the Pacific. Five miles away in a straight line a glimpse of green indicated the valley of the Rimac. The rest was hidden by mountains. In every direction nothing but barren mountains was to be seen. Where the buildings stood the soil was a hard sand, covered here and there with huge bowlders and with many varieties of cacti. To the north and south we looked down into gloomy ravines thousands of feet deep. To the east and west the slopes were more gradual, and there were charming little valleys needing only water to make them spots of beauty.

The buildings on Mount Harvard were portable structures, carried for the most part from the United States. They were made of a light framework of wood, covered with canvas and heavy paper. These houses and the instruments were conveyed from Chosica on muleback over a trail constructed for the purpose.

Life on Mount Harvard was somewhat lonely and monotonous, especially for Mrs. Bailey, who seldom enjoyed the society of any woman, except that of our amiable half-breed cook. Perhaps the most