The country of Peru is naturally subject to earthquakes. About fifty years before I was there, or about the year 1670, there were two great ones at Lima, which overturned many houses, churches, and convents. And in the reign of Charles II. the late king of Spain, there was an earthquake near the equator, which lifted up whole fields, carrying them to the distance of several miles. Small shocks are often felt which do no harm, and I have been often called out of bed on such occasions, and heard nothing more about the matter; but on these occasions the bells always toll to prayers. Yet, although this country has suffered much from earthquakes, especially near the coast, their churches are lofty and neatly built. Such parts of their buildings as require strength are made of burnt bricks; but their dwelling-houses are all constructed of bamboos, canes, and bricks only dried in the sun, which are sufficiently durable, as it never rains in Peru. Instead of roofs, they are merely covered over with mats, on which ashes are strewed, to keep out the dews. The small river of Lima, or _Runac_, consists mostly of snow-water from the neighbouring mountains, which are covered all the year with snow, that partly dissolves in the summer-season, from September to March. One would expect the weather to be much hotter here; but there is no proportion between the heat of this part of America and the same latitudes in Africa. This is owing to two causes; that the neighbourhood of the snowy mountains diffuses a cool temperature of the air all around; and the constant humid vapours, which are so frequent that I often expected it to rain when I first went to Lima. These vapours are not so dense, low, and gloomy, like our fogs, nor yet are they separated above like our summer clouds; but an exhalation between both, spread all around, as when we say the day is overcast, so that sometimes a fine dew is felt on the upper garments, and may even be discerned on the knap of the cloth. This is a prodigious convenience to the inhabitants of Lima, who are thus screened half the day from the sun; and though it often shines out in the afternoon, yet is the heat very tolerable, being tempered by the sea-breezes, and not near so hot as at Lisbon and some parts of Spain, more than thirty degrees farther from the equator.