coastal
area, with the most nearly even distribution in the north, largely
because of summer thunderstorms.

The higher inland mountains receive less precipitation than the
intermediate uplands. Terrain differences cause wide local variations,
but the seasonal distribution is the most consistent of any area. In the
northern mountains, for example, the months that usually have the
highest averages are November and June.

DRAINAGE

All but a very small portion of the precipitation drains through the
rivers to the coastline without leaving the country. With the exception
of a few insignificant trickles, only one small stream in the northern
part of the country escapes Albania. In the south an even smaller
rivulet drains into Greece. As the divide is on the eastern side of the
borders with Yugoslavia and Greece, however, a considerable amount of
water from those countries drains through Albania. A quite extensive
portion of the White Drin River basin is in the Kosovo area across the
northeastern Yugoslav border. The three lakes shared with Yugoslavia and
Greece, as well as all the streams that flow into them, drain into the
Drin River. The watershed divide in the south also dips nearly forty
miles into Greece at one point. Several tributaries of the Vijose River
rise in that area (see fig. 4).

[Illustration: _Figure 4. Rivers and Lakes in Albania_]

With the exception of the Drin River, which flows northward and drains
nearly the entire eastern border region before it turns westward to the
sea, most of the rivers in the northern and central parts of the country
flow much more directly westward to the sea. In the process they cut
through the ridges rather than flowing around them. This apparent
impossibility came about because the highlands were originally lifted
without much folding. The streams came into existence at that time and
antedate the ridges because the compression and folding of the plateau
occurred later. The folding process was rapid enough in many instances
to block the rivers temporarily, forming lakes that existed until the
downstream channel was cut sufficiently to drain them. This sequence
created the many interior basins that are typically a part of the
landforms. During the lifetimes of the temporary lakes enough sediment
was deposited in them to form the basis for fertile soils. Folding was
only infrequently rapid enough to force the streams to radically
different channels.

The precipitous f