The climate of Cerro Pasco is for nearly one half the year, or from the end of November to May, exceedingly gloomy and variable. In the course of a few hours, the wind is often observed to take the round of the compass; and in the same time it changes from fair to rain, from rain to sleet, snow, hail, and rain again. The lanes, for streets they merit not to be termed, are during the greater part of these months wet and miry. The thermometer of Fahrenheit, during this period, rarely rises above 44° in the shade, and seldom falls so low as the freezing point. But during the dry season, which reigns from May to November, it is much otherwise; and then, though the sun at noon shines forth with great power in the face of a cloudless canopy, the frosts at night are intense, and the evenings and the mornings are keenly piercing and cold. In the course of the month of August the air is so remarkably dry that the nose and fauces become parched and painful. The writer suffered so much from this troublesome affection as to find it necessary to seek a more temperate air a few leagues off, when the ailment disappeared immediately. The severity of the climate of Cerro Pasco had little to mitigate its effects in the manner wherein houses were constructed in the time of the Spaniards. The dwellings are covered with thatch, and this is the unfortunate cause of frequent and destructive fires breaking out in the town. To avoid such accidents, one or two houses have been lately covered with lead. It was not until the arrival of the Peruvian Mining Company, in December 1825, that the inhabitants were taught how to mitigate the evils of their inclement home by the construction of chimneys and proper fire-places, as well as glazed windows; and for the introduction of these comforts to the dwellings and firesides of the miners we have heard the company blessed, long after its agents had to forsake those regions of subterranean wealth. Though this rich district has not the natural advantages of a favourable climate, yet it possesses that by which its rigour may be softened and its effects meliorated; it has abundance of coal.