Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/61

Rh clouds ever pass between those vacancies, so as to occasion partial showers of rain?

6. Does the wind never blow from off the Pacific Ocean, upon those districts which are exempt from rain?

7., If it be so, does it not bring with it clouds from off the Pacific Ocean? and, if so, what becomes of those clouds?

8. It is stated, that in the night dews fall which support vegetation in those districts. Have the sources of these dews been ascertained? Are they the result of evaporation from the soil only, during the heat of the day; or are they not, on the other hand, partly created by the evaporation from the adjacent seas?

9. If created by evaporation from the soil, what is the original source of the moisture of the soil?

10. Are there springs in those districts? are they numerous and regular? and what is their source?

11. Are there rivulets? and what is their source?

12. What is the breadth, and what the length, of the countries thus exempt from the phenomenon of rain?

13. What are the phenomena resulting from its absence?

14. Do those districts enjoy a perpetually unclouded atmosphere? Are there rainbows? Are there any meteors, or falling stars, or thunder and lightning? And, if these phenomena do exist, are they vertical, or are they not in the vicinity of the mountains?

15. If the question 13 be not, in its entire sense, applicable to the circumstances, it may further be asked (as Europeans can only ask questions founded on the phenomena of a climate subject to rain), whether there be any phenomena peculiar to the climate which cannot be anticipated à priori?

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