234 TROPICAL NATURE 



and a beauty that can never be forgotten. All nature seems 

 refreshed and strengthened by the coolness and moisture of 

 the past night ; new leaves and buds unfold almost before the 

 eye, and fresh shoots may often be observed to have grown 

 many inches since the preceding day. The temperature is the 

 most delicious conceivable. The slight chill of early dawn, 

 which was itself agreeable, is succeeded by an invigorating 

 warmth ; and the intense sunshine lights up the glorious 

 vegetation of the tropics, and realises all that the magic art of 

 the painter or the glowing words of the poet have pictured as 

 their ideals of terrestrial beauty. 



The Aspect of the Equatorial Heavens 



Within the limits of the equatorial zone the noonday sun is 

 truly vertical twice every year, and for several months it passes 

 so near the zenith that the difference can hardly be detected 

 without careful observation of the very short shadows of vertical 

 objects. The absence of distinct horizontal shadows at noon, 

 which thus characterises a considerable part of the year, is 

 itself a striking phenomenon to an inhabitant of the temperate 

 zones ; and equally striking is the changed aspect of the starry 

 heavens. The grand constellation Orion passes vertically 

 overhead, while the Great Bear is only to be seen low down 

 in the northern heavens, and the Pole star either appears close 

 to the horizon or has altogether disappeared, according as we 

 are north or south of the equator. Towards the south the 

 Southern Cross, the Magellanic clouds, and the jet-black 

 " coal sacks " are the most conspicuous objects invisible in our 

 northern latitudes. The same cause that brings the sun 

 overhead in its daily march equally affects the planets, which 

 appear high up towards the zenith far more frequently than 

 with us, thus affording splendid opportunities for telescopic 

 observation. 



Intensity of Meteorological Phenomena at the Equator 

 The excessive violence of meteorological phenomena gene- 

 rally supposed to be characteristic of the tropics is not by any 

 means remarkable in the equatorial zone. Electrical disturb- 

 ances are much more frequent, but not generally more violent 

 than in the temperate regions. The wind-storms are rarely 



