Note 12 — Chapter II

It is a curious illustration of the utterly untrustworthy character of statements made by unscientific travellers to read the following passage in a book published by a recent traveller in South America, who visited Chicla in November, the beginning of summer. He declares that the fringe of green vegetation “dwindles and withers at a height of nine or ten thousand feet;... while on the upper grounds, where sometimes rain is plentiful, the air is too keen and cold for even the most dwarfish and stunted vegetation to thrive.”