[20] The Boletín de Minas del Peru, No. 34, 1905, contains a graphic representation of the régime of the Rio Chili at Arequipa for the years 1901-1905.
[21] Hann (Handbook of Climatology, translated by R. De C. Ward, New York, 1903) indicates a contributory cause in the upwelling of cold water along the coast caused by the steady westerly drift of the equatorial current.
[22] This is the elevation obtained by the Peruvian Expedition. Raimondi’s figure (1,832 m.) is higher.
[23] According to Ward’s observations the base of the cloud belt averages between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above sea level (Climatic Notes Made During a Voyage Around South America, Journ. of School Geogr., Vol. 2, 1898). On the south Peruvian coast, specifically at Mollendo, Middendorf found the cloud belt beginning about 1,000 feet and extending upwards to elevations of 3,000 to 4,000 feet. At Lima the clouds descend to lower levels (El Clima de Lima, Bol. Soc. Geogr. de Lima, Vol. 15, 1904). In the third edition of his Süd und Mittelamerika (Leipzig and Vienna, 1914) Sievers says that at Lima in the winter the cloud on the coast does not exceed an elevation of 450 m. (1,500 feet) while on the hills it lies at elevations between 300 and 700 m. (1,000 and 2,300 feet).
[24] In most of the coast towns the ford or ferry is an important institution and the chimbadores or baleadores as they are called are expert at their trade: they know the régime of the rivers to a nicety. Several settlements owe their origin to the exigencies of transportation, permanent and periodic; thus before the development of its irrigation system Camaná, according to General Miller (Memoirs, London, 1829, Vol. 2, p. 27), was a hamlet of some 30 people who gained their livelihood through ferrying freight and passengers across the Majes River.
[25] A dry pocket in the Huallaga basin between 6° and 7° S. is described by Spruce (Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes, 2 vols., London, 1908). Tarapoto at an elevation of 1,500 feet above sea level, encircled by hills rising 2,000 to 3,000 feet higher, rarely experiences heavy rain though rain falls frequently on the hills.
[26] Speaking of Cómas situated at the headwaters of a source of the Perene amidst a multitude of quebradas Raimondi (op. cit., p. 109) says it “might properly be called the town of the clouds, for there is not a day during the year, at any rate towards the evening, when the town is not enveloped in a mist sufficient to hide everything from view.”
[27] Observer: E. C. Erdis of the 1912 and 1914-15 Expeditions.
[28] Percentages given because the number of observations varies.
[29] Observer: Señor Valdivia. For location of Santa Lucia see Fig. 66.