5 3° 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A Sea of Cloud above a Valley Half a Mile Deep. 



day and night, extends over two or three weeks in May or early June. 

 A second one occurs in October. For several weeks preceding each of 

 these rainy seasons there may be dense clouds and occasional showers at 

 midday. From four or five o'clock in the late afternoon, till nine or ten 

 in the morning, the sky above is cloudless. The sun sets in splendor over 

 the western peaks and the moon and stars shine out with a sparkling 

 brilliancy. The clear days after "the seasons" are the most beautiful 

 of all the year. On the mountains 'round about, where all had been 

 dark green and gray before the rains, the foliage now takes on a new 

 brightness, and the scar-like watercourses are now veiled by white cata- 

 racts that plunge hundreds of feet down the mountainsides. Beyond 

 the lower mountains of Guava Eidge one can see on, past the foaming 

 surf line, out a hundred miles over the blue Caribbean. 



During the late summer, and again in midwinter, the rainfall may 

 average but three or four inches per month, and it may even be fair for 

 weeks together, so that the soil of the hilltops and ridges about Cin- 

 chona becomes very dry. The total rainfall for the year at Cinchona is 

 from 100 to 115 inches. North of the mountains, three miles away, 

 there may be 200 inches in a year. The temperature at Cinchona ranges 

 from 48 to 78 degrees, but these extremes are seldom reached. In 

 June, 1906, while New York and Baltimore had temperatures in the 

 upper nineties, the thermometer at Cinchona reached 72 degrees but 

 twice, and then for but an hour or two at a time. At night, on these 

 same days, with temperatures of 52 or 54 degrees, we were ready to 

 enjoy the open fire of juniper logs in the living room of the bungalow. 



