8o8 



C. SKOTTSBERG 



Fig. 2. South coast of Masatierra from the summit of Cerro Negro, looking East toward El 

 Verdugo (the small detached rock , showing sharp lower limit of fog belt. — Photo 71 1917. 



culminates in the summit aptly named El Yunque (The Anvil), 927 m according 

 to the sketch map published by Johovv 2^ crosses the wide, central part and then, 

 gradually losing altitude, runs along the X\V coast to Bahi'a del Padre. With 

 the prevailing winds condensation will rarely or not at all take place over the 

 range W. of Juanango. As was pointed out in the Introduction, this section 

 appears always to have been devoid of trees, and the character of the soil and 

 vegetation testifies that the rainfall is scanty. Santa Clara belongs to the same 

 dry district. I shall return to these questions in Chapter. IV. 



Of the climate of Masafuera very little is known. The island is uninhab- 

 ited; a convict settlement was established in 1909 but abandoned after few 

 years; later, it was occupied a second time for a short period. No climatic rec- 

 ords, if taken, have been published, and in any case they would have told us 

 nothing of the conditions except in a single protected spot close to the beach. 

 As the island is much higher than Masatierra, about 1500 m according to our 

 observations (1800 or even 2000 m are indicated on the charts, but these fig- 

 ures are much exaggerated), climatic vegetation belts are well developed; the 

 highland above approximately 1000 m probably enjoys a cool temperate climate, 

 and if the information obtained from fishermen visiting the island is correct, snow 

 has been observed on the summits, indicating that frosts, unknown on Masatierra, 

 occur. In view of the total absence of regular observations our temperature read- 

 ings for February-March, 191 7, may offer some interest. Table V. 



