During summer, the sun at noon is felt very powerfully at the capital of Chile, and it is requisite to guard against the risks of insolation; just as happens in Lima in the month of May, when the mornings and evenings are cool and cloudy, but the mid-day so excessively hot that it has become proverbial, and children and others are at this season warned by the older and more wary Limenians to keep out of the sun in these words, “Quitese de este sol que madura duraznos!”—Get out of this sun, hot enough to ripen peaches! an expression probably used in reference to the mode of ripening fruit of various sorts in Lima, by having it stoved. We understand that this is done chiefly to prevent the birds from eating the fruit, which they would not fail to do if it were left to ripen naturally on the tree. The cheremoya is the fruit most commonly stoved. In July and August the snow sometimes falls around Santiago, when the native of Lima who visits this Chilean capital is peculiarly struck with the novel appearance of the orange-trees in the “_patios_” or court-yards of the houses, bending under the double weight of fruit and congealed snow; the green leaves forming a remarkable contrast with the sparkling crystals, like the jewel garden of the Incas.[37] It rarely snows in the valleys; but in the winter of 1834, as we were told, a postman and his horse perished in the snow on the road between Santiago and its sea-port Valparaiso,[38] where in the months of June, July, August, and September, it rains a great deal. But during the dry season, though sometimes foggy in the morning, the sky upon the whole is clear, and the climate healthy and agreeable. In giving an account of the climate and progress of vegetation on the coast of the middle provinces of Chile, it is stated, on good authority, that “the rainy season, as already mentioned, begins in May, and continues to October; the heaviest rains are in June and July. After a few days of rain, there is an interval of fine weather for at least one or two weeks; and the quantity that falls during the season is small, varying from twelve to sixteen inches. In summer the atmosphere is excessively arid, and there is little or no dew. The temperature at noon, in the middle of the rainy season, is generally about 60°; at night, seldom under 40°, though there is occasionally a little frost. In summer the thermometer at noon stands between 70° and 75°; but, during the night, in clear weather, it frequently falls more than 20°. “During the latter part of summer, vegetation is almost dormant, and scarcely a plant of any kind is to be seen in flower; but, in a very few weeks after the first rains, every part of the country is clothed with verdure. “In the south of Chile the heavy rains render the road almost impassable; and, as vegetation does not advance so rapidly there as in the north, he” (_the naturalist_) “can botanise in October, November, December, and January.”[39]