302 LEGUANEA MOUNTAINS.' 



we heard once or twice in the evening, the long-drawn, 

 clear, mellow note of the Solitaire (^Ptilogonys armil- 

 latus), from the depth of the darkening woods. 



The night was delightfully cold and quiet ; the 

 coldness made the unfamiliar appendage of a blanket 

 quite agreeable ; the stillness was peculiar, such a 

 total absence of sounds as one never finds anywhere 

 in the lowlands, nowhere, I think, except in very lone 

 situations at a lofty elevation ; as if the silence could 

 he felt. In the morning we again looked with ad- 

 miration on the extended prospect ; there was some- 

 thing exceedingly interesting in the effect of the misty 

 clouds that hung about the face of the towering 

 mountain to the east.* Sometimes it would be quite 

 hidden, overspread with a mass of grey cloud that 

 joined its fellows in the sky ; then it would appear 

 dimly, as if covered with a veil of thin muslin ; then 

 openings here and there would break, revealing the 

 dark green, almost black, surface of the mountain- 

 side ; these openings, rents in the cloudy veil, would 

 flit along, borne by the breeze, now closing up, now 

 enlarging, now coalescing with others ; the towering 

 mass at one time almost distinct and uncovered, then 

 gradually dimming, and again brightening ; — so that 

 the changes seemed almost magical. The eastern sky 

 was concealed by this vast mass, far up towards the 

 zenith, so that we had no opportunity of seeing the 

 sun rise, but we could witness the sudden irradiation 

 of the plains and distant hills below. 



* This must have been St. Catherine's Peak, or one of its mighty 

 spurs. 



