348 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



January 13 = January and February 



January 14 = March and April 



January 15 = May and June 



January 16 = July and August 



January 17 = September and October 



January 18 = November and December 



January 19 = January, February and March 



January 20 = April, May and June 



January 21 = July, August and September 



January 22 = October, November, December 



January 23 = January, February, March, April 



January 24 = May, June, July, August 



January 25 = September, October, November, December 



January 26 = January' to June 



January 27 = July to December 



January 28 = January to December (i hour for each month) 



At the end of the month the pintas were carefully averaged 

 and the resulting weather condition was accepted, especially 

 by the older people, as an absolute forecast of the weather 

 to prevail in the corresponding month of that year. 



While visiting El Brazil in January, Mrs. Clark, her little 

 daughter and A. went riding nearly every day, with the com- 

 fortable assurance that no rain was likely to overtake them. 

 We called several times at the B. farm, where coffee picking 

 was the chief occupation. In January and February the air 

 was laden with the delicious scent of the little whitish blos- 

 soms of the "nance" trees {Byrsonima crassifolia) growing 

 by the roadside. On the twenty-second of January we rode 

 to Carrizal, a village on the slope of Carrlzal mountain some 

 eight miles from El Brazil and two thousand feet higher. 

 The mountain was almost covered with "farms" which were 

 really great expanses of rich and fertile pastures that never 

 dry up like the potreros lower down. It was full of cattle. 

 Every farmer owned land in the uplands if he was able to do 

 so, and kept most of his stock there in summer, only bring- 

 ing down a few fresh cows from time to time to supply the 



