CLIMATE 29 
During the rainy season there is frequently a foot or two of water on many 
of the trails in the interior, and across the narrow swollen streams which occur 
with such frequency and which are rarely spanned by bridges, one must either 
pass by balancing one’s self on a narrow tree trunk or by wading, sometimes 
up to one’s knees or waist or even deeper. Although most of the party soon 
became very adept in crossing on tree trunks, occasionally one would fall into 
the water and get as thorough a wetting as if he had waded through the stream. 
It is particularly the moisture that renders the climate of Liberia so enervat- 
ing. On the coast of Liberia no month is entirely free from rain, though Decem- 
ber, January, and February are the driest, and February may be almost entirely 
dry. During the whole rainy season the air on the coast is not only moist, but 
often saturated, and there are many cloudy days. 
From the geographical position of Liberia, it is obvious that its climate is 
equatorial; the temperature, however, is never excessively high but fluctuates 
between 75° F. at night and 85° F. at noon or in the late afternoon. Temperatures 
of 95° F. or 96° F. are not at all unusual, and occasionally temperatures of 100° F. 
have been recorded. Johnston states that the highest shade-temperature actu- 
ally recorded in Liberia was 105° F., this was in the region to the north of Sino. 
Such a temperature must certainly be very unusual. He further states that 
during the months of December, January, and February, temperatures of 100° F. 
or 101° F. were frequently registered at noon, and that the night temperature 
was generally from 80° F. to 88° F. At Mount Barclay, nearly twenty miles from 
the coast of Monrovia, a temperature as high as 100° F. is unusual, but 95° F. is 
not very uncommon. The middle of the rainy season is usually recorded as 
the coolest time of the year. Maugham states that on the seacoast at that time 
he has seen the thermometer fall as low as 65° F. Days and nights of continu- 
ous rain usually cause a drop in the temperature. When such a drop occurs the 
temperature may not go over 69° F. in the daytime. A temperature as low as 
55 F. is very exceptional. During 1929 the following record of humidity and 
temperature was kept at the Firestone Plantations Company on the Du River. 
During the period from November to April or May, which corresponds to 







Barometer Readings Temperature Readings 
1929 
Average Low High Average Low High 
USCC se No record No record 
BIOWTOARV cee sense nas oF - 
“i ) | a ae en ae Fe * 
PRG ae Gh owe kid San es os . 
May (21 days).... 30.03 30.01 30.10 85° i i 88° 
June (61) aed 30.06 30.01 30.16 79.95° 16° 86° 
July ie) 30.09 30.02 30.18 81.41° io: 85° 
August 0 oaks 30.08 30. 30.14 78.35° 16° 82° 
September (18 ‘“ ).... 30.005 30.01 30.14 11.19" T° Si" 
October (26 “ ) 29.81 29.02 30.08 ¢2.2° re 88° 
November (21 “ ) 29.967 30. 30.04 76.28° A 83° 
December (— ) 



