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National Geographic : 1904 Aug
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"fl..... NT .,,, ~ ,,.~~r AY TTI rhI! f ra'7a 314 1 HE INATIUNAL .J ^ satisfied with the climate of the coast, and desire cooler or even cold weather, have but to ascend the roads leading toward the Andes, the heat, of course, diminishing gradually as the higher alti tudes are reached. On the Sierra it is as cool as in the south of England, on the coast it is as warm as in the south of France, and it is not very much warmer on the Montafa, while on the Puna or high plateaus it is as cold as in northern Scotland. The following table gives the mean annual temperature of the three zones at three different points : COAST : Piura....................... L im a........... ........... Moquegua............... ... SIERRA : Cajam arca . ................. Huaraz ......... ...... Arequipa...... ... ....... ... MONTANA : Iquitos .. . . .............. . Huanuco.................. .. Santa Ana........... ........ 770 Fahr. 66° " 630 " 520 " 590 " 570 " 750 " 740 " 72° " The Sierra is subject to rain in the summer and snow in the winter. Sir Clements R. Markham, writing on a typical Sierra town, says : " From Cerro de Pasco there is a con siderable descent southwards to the city of Jauja, the climate of which is said to be almost perfect for patients with pul monary complaints. It is a charming little Sierra town, beautifully situated in an amphitheater of mountains, clothed to their summits with waving fields of barley The climate is delightful." This important problem of the cure of consumption, which today so greatly preoccupies the attention of scientists, has been to a great extent solved in Peru, where doctors are unanimous in recommending a sojourn at Jauja to all those whose lungs are not sound. The construction of a sanatorium in the town of Jauja is projected. In the Montafia there are two sea sons-the dry, which lasts from May to. October, and the wet, from Novem ber to April. Professor Orton, speaking of a Mon tafia town, says : " The city of Moyobamba stands in a most luxuriant place, with an altitude of about 2,700 feet and a mean annual temperature of 77° Fahr. The climate is delightful. Nature is so prodigal that everybody can get a living--except phy sicians." Mr. Notzli, M. E., writing of the same district, says: "I have lived fifteen years in Caja marca and in the Amazon provinces. The country is exceedingly healthy; I have never experienced any illness what ever." The Montafia, or forest region, is a zone but little known, except along the borders of the rivers that are constantly navigated by the rubber hunters. Cov ered throughout by virgin forests rich in all of the tropical products and trav ersed by a network of navigable rivers, it is undoubtedly the land of the future. Referring to this region, Humboldt wrote: "The headwaters of the Amazon sooner or later will be the center of the world's colonization." On the coast wherever water has been obtained, either from the rivers flowing from the Andes or from artesian wells, the land becomes a veritable oasis cov ered by a rich and varied vegetation. Artificial irrigation alone is needed to produce fields of surprising fertility. The government has under study many problems of irrigation for the purpose of regaining little by little the desert sands. I may say that an expert from the U. S. Geological Survey and an assistant have been engaged by the gov ernment to study subterranean water courses and the artesian-well problem, of vital importance to many provinces. The plantations get their water gen erally during the summer months, when the floods rush down the streams. In certain departments, like Ica and Piura, OGRAPHIC AGAZCINIFIYP
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