236 TROPICAL NATURE 



heat increased hourly, and towards two o'clock reached 92 to 

 93 Fahr., by which time every voice of bird and mammal 

 was hushed. The leaves, which were so moist and fresh in 

 early morning, now became lax and drooping, and flowers shed 

 their petals. On most days in June and July a heavy shower 

 would fall some time in the afternoon, producing a most 

 welcome coolness. The approach of the rain-clouds was after 

 a uniform fashion very interesting to observe. First, the cool 

 sea-breeze which had commenced to blow about ten o'clock, 

 and which had increased in force with the increasing power 

 of the sun, would flag, and finally die away. The heat and 

 electric tension of the atmosphere would then become almost 

 insupportable. Languor and uneasiness would seize on every 

 one, even the denizens of the forest betraying it by their 

 motions. White clouds would appear in the east and gather 

 into cumuli, with an increasing blackness along their lower 

 portions. The whole eastern horizon would become almost 

 suddenly black, and this would spread upwards, the sun at 

 length becoming obscured. Then the rush of a mighty wind 

 is heard through the forest, swaying the tree-tops ; a vivid 

 flash of lightning bursts forth, then a crash of thunder, and 

 down streams the deluging rain. Such storms soon cease, 

 leaving bluish-black motionless clouds in the sky until night. 

 Meantime all nature is refreshed ; but heaps of flower-petals 

 and fallen leaves are seen under the trees. Towards evening 

 life revives again, and the ringing uproar is resumed from 

 bush and tree. The following morning the sun again rises 

 in a cloudless sky ; and so the cycle is completed ; spring, 

 summer, and autumn, as it were in one tropical day. The 

 days are more or less like this throughout the year. A 

 little difference exists between the dry and wet seasons ; but 

 generally the dry season, which lasts from July to December, 

 is varied with showers, and the wet, from January to June, 

 with sunny days. It results from this, that the periodical 

 phenomena of plants and animals do not take place at about 

 the same time in all species, or in the individuals of any given 

 species, as they do in temperate countries. In Europe a 

 woodland scene has its spring, its summer, its autumnal, and 

 its winter aspects. In the equatorial forests the aspect is the 

 same or nearly so every day in the year ; budding, flowering, 



