Cii.vi'. Vir. A DRY SEASON. 289 



and this was a most delightful time. The vegetation 

 which had become parched up in November had been 

 freshened by the showery weather of December, and 

 the open places were covered with a carpet of the 

 brightest verdure. The marly and sandy terrace-formed 

 beaches were clothed with a great diversity of flowering 

 shrubs. Birds and insects were far more numerous and 

 active than they had been before. A species of swallow 

 of a brown colour, with a short square tail (Cotyle), then 

 made its appearance in great numbers, and built its 

 nests in holes of the bank on which the village is built, 

 trilling forth in the mornings and evenings a short but 

 sweet song. The east wind recommenced. It blew at 

 first gently, but increased in strength daily as the dry- 

 ness augmented : and with it came a dense fog, a rare 

 phenomenon in this countiy, but which I found to be of 

 regular occurrence in the central parts of the Lower 

 Amazons when the dry season was much prolonged. 

 For three successive weeks the daily order of the 

 weather was almost uniform. The mornings dawned 

 with a clear sky, a stiff breeze blowing and tossing the 

 waters into billows, searching through our dwellings, 

 and communicating a healthful exhilarating glow to 

 the body. As the sun ascended, a light mistiness crept 

 along the lower strata of the atmosphere ; after mid- 

 day this increased in density, until an hour before 

 sunset the sun became obscured, and no longer produced 

 that sickening heat which at all other times was so de- 

 pressing in the late hours of afternoon. An hour or 

 two after sunset the mist cleared away, and the nights 

 were starlit and deliciously cool. Every day the fog 



