The climate of Peru, a country like those preceding entirely within the tropics, has similar though greater variations from altitude, as its mountains are higher, its table-lands more lofty and extensive. With a larger area of temperate climate on its highlands, it has also, in wide contrast to the others, a fairly temperate region along its entire coast. This last, however, differs from the ordinary climate of the temperate zone, as does that at an altitude of 6000 or 8000 feet, in having weather which is never so hot as often in almost all parts of the United States, and at the same time is never so cold. At Lima, eight miles from the sea, the mean temperature is 66°; in the warm season, December to March, the mercury occasionally climbs a little above 80°, and in winter, June to September, it rarely falls below 50°. It is a little warmer farther north, and on the broad desert in the sun it is hot, hotter, hottest; as I once found to my sorrow. But comparatively few persons have occasion to travel there, and when they do they are likely to journey in the late afternoon and night; a more agreeable season for such cross country riding. On the deserts, too, it is colder at night as happens the world over. The winter season at Lima is damp and cloudy, the atmosphere raw and chilly; with the mercury below 60° a fire would be most acceptable, but they never have one. On account of the dampness and the evaporation from the heat of the body, the cold is felt more than the temperature warrants, so that overcoats and warm wraps may be donned for sitting in the house. Conditions vary on other parts of the coast; in general there is less fog and greater heat farther north and more fog and mist towards the south. Mollendo is particularly damp and disagreeable. Some shore places near Lima have much more sunshine than that city, and 20 miles from the sea one gets beyond the fog belt into a region of perpetual spring. Although the climate of Lima is said to be rather enervating to permanent residents, many dwellers in the temperate zone would prefer it to that of any other coast city within the tropics. On the highlands the climate is widely diverse. The seasons are opposite, as there it is the dry season from May to October, when it is damp on the coast, while the chief precipitation above occurs during their summer, the dry months below. At an altitude of 7000 or 8000 feet the climate is considered agreeable, at Arequipa averaging 57°, at Cajamarca 52°. At 12,000 to 15,000 feet it is generally cool, perhaps bracing to those accustomed thereto, but often trying to the visitor, who is likely to suffer from _soroche_, the name applied to mountain sickness.