Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/60

38 is composed, the most solid and ponderous. It is therefore Peru that adjusts and maintains the equilibrium of the globe. Peru, in which the prodigal hand of Nature has stored up all the productions she has dispersed in the vast territories which lie on the other side of the Equator; Peru, in which, uniting two different worlds, she has raised to herself a temple worthy of her immensity, is what, in the rotations of the terrestrial planet, prevents the ruin of many an opulent kingdom, of many a warlike nation, and of Europe itself, the theatre of the grandeur and wisdom of man.

The following queries relative to the phenomena of the climate of certain districts in Peru, were proposed by an intelligent friend of the Editor to a learned Peruvian residing in the British Capital. The replies, which are subjoined, may tend to illustrate several physical points relative to a country which offers distinct characteristics from the rest of the globe, and which has recently excited a more than common curiosity in, the philosophical world.

1. Does it ever rain in those parts of Peru which are commonly exempt from that phenomenon?

2. Are those districts uniformly bounded on the east by the mountains?

3. What is the general height of those mountains?

4. Does a stratum of clouds, supposed to proceed from the Atlantic Ocean, regularly settle at a particular height on the eastern side of those mountains?

5. Is that stratum of clouds higher than the vacancies which exist between the several mountains? and, if so, do the clouds