EXPLORATIONS IN CAPE REGION, 743 



seldom reaches San Jose. This latter place receives its 

 local rains from the southeast, where the clouds are seen 

 gathering over the ocean shortly before the rain begins. 



As regards the rainfall of the mountains, two points are 

 of interest. The western crest of the high mountains 

 receives more rain and is more moist than the eastern crest, 

 but owing to the steeper slopes and quicker drainage and 

 greater evaporation from north winds, the creeks on the 

 western slope are of much less duration and much smaller 

 in volume than those on the eastern side, while all unite 

 in the San Jose Creek or River. Another point is that 

 the central part of the sierra receives more rainfall than 

 the southern and northern parts. 



As a consequence of this the western slope of the high 

 sierra is more moist than the eastern slope during the 

 rainy season, but when the rains are over it dries up much 

 quicker and is thus able to sustain much less large vegeta- 

 tion. The greater fertility of the valley of San Jose is 

 due to the course of the San Jose River which runs in a 

 general direction from north to south, parallel with the 

 sierra, thus collecting the combined water from all the 

 creeks from San Jose to Miraflores, while on the western 

 side there is no such central stream to collect the waters 

 from the mountains, each creek emptying independently 

 in the Pacific Ocean at floodtime, while in the dry season 

 the waters sink before they reach the coast. 



I have already stated that Miraflores, at the upper end 

 of the San Jose Valley, is situated at the northern divide 

 of the valley. The Miraflores Creek is the most northern 

 one but one which empties into San Jose River, as all 

 creeks from the sierra north of this place empty into the 

 Gulf or into the Pacific. But strange enough, this divide 

 of streams, although not much over 1200 feet, is also 

 a divide of rainfall. A league or so — five, six miles 



