CLIMATE. Brazil lies almost entirely within the tropics, the region of the trade winds, and is dependent upon the latter for its rainfall, and upon the Atlantic as the source of moisture. Wet and dry seasons alternate, as the movement of the trades follows the sun from north to south, the effects being modified by the direction of the coasts and the relief of the surface. in the greater part of the country the climate is remarkably constant, with a fairly uniform tem perature throughout the year. and a heavy rain fall. In the great Amazon Valley. which is low and moist. densely forested, and saffljeeted at all to the sweep of the trades, the temperature i, never very high. rarely exceeding 95°. The an nual range is slight, not exceeding 15° in the course of the year, and everywhere the Moist Wind; afford a copious rainfall, ranging eommon ly from 75 to 100 inches. and increasing to much greater amounts at the foothills of the Andes, where the air-enrrents are forced upward into colder regions. It is believed that in sonic parts
of the valley of the Amazon the rainfall is fully 300-400 inches. While the wet and dry seasons are not strongly marked, most of the rain falls between January and June. On the coast of the plateau region of southeastern Brazil there is a greater range of temperature with the sea sons, and a more strongly marked seasonal rain fall, the greater part of the annual precipitation coming in the summer, when the sun is south of the equator, and the trades have moved south with it. In the interior of this plateau region the seasonal distribution of the rain is still found, but the amount is much less than on the coast: indeed, in sonic regions, as between the STio Francisco and the Para nii, the rainfall is deficient in amount.