Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1878 — Where It Never Rains. [ARTICLE]

Where It Never Rains.

In Peru, South America, rain is unknown. The coast of Peru is within the region of perpetual southeast trade winds, and, though the Peruvian shores are on the verge of the great southeast boiler, yet it never rains there. The reason is plain. The southeast trade winds in the Atlantic ocean first strike the water on the coast of Africa. Traveling to the northwest they blow obliquely across the ocean until they reach the coast of Brazil. By this time they are laden with vapor, which they continue to bear along across the continent, depositing it as they go, and supplying with it the sources of the Rio de la Plate and the southern tributaries of the Amazon. Finally they reach the snow-capped Andes; here is wrung the last particle of moisturo tliat a very low temperature can attract. Reaching the summit of that range, they now tumble down as cool and dry winds on the Pacific slope beyond. Meeting with no evaporating "Surface and no temperature colder than that to which they were subjected on the mountain tops, they reach the ocean. Thus we see how the tops of the Andes become the reservoir from which are supplied rivers of Chili and Peru. —San Francisco Bulletin.