"Se THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 
moist grass, a cluster of cypresses — or when- 
ever your eye lights upon the one wood of the 
district, the long olive grove of the Cephissus, 
you are struck with a sudden sense of richness, 
and feel as if the splendours of the tropics 
would be nothing to this.” 
Most travellers have been fascinated by the 
beauty of night in the tropics. Our even- 
ings no doubt are often delicious also, though © 
the mild climate we enjoy is partly due to the 
sky being so often overcast. In parts of the 
tropics, however, the air is calm and cloud- 
less throughout nearly the whole of the year. 
There is no dew, and the inhabitants sleep on 
the house-tops, in full view of the brightness 
of the stars and the beauty of the sky, which 
is almost; indescribable. 
“]] faisait,” says Bernardin de St. Pierre of 
such a scene, “une de ces nuits délicieuses, si 
communes entre les tropiques, et dont le plus 
abile pinceau ne rendrait pas le beauté. La 
lune paraissait au milieu du firmament, en- 
tourée d’un rideau de nuages, que ses rayons 
dissipaient par degrés. Sa lumiére se répan- 
dait insensiblement sur les montagnes de l’fle 
