222 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 
for active work in the afternoon, but the eye and 
the brain can combine relaxation with keenest at- 
tention. 
In the northlands the difference in the tem- 
perature of the early dawn and high noon is so 
slight that the effect on birds and other crea- 
tures, as well as plants of all kinds, is not pro- 
found. But in the tropics a change takes place 
which is as pronounced as that brought about by 
day and night. Above all, the volume of sound 
becomes no more than a pianissimo melody; for 
the chorus of birds and insects dies away little 
by little with the increase of heat. There is 
something geometrical about this, something 
precise and fine in this working of a natural law 
—a law from which no living being is immune, 
for at length one unconsciously lies motionless, 
overcome by the warmth and this illusion of si- 
lence. 
The swaying of the hammock sets in motion 
a cool breeze, and lying at full length, one is ad- 
mitted at high noon to a new domain which has 
no other portal but this. At this hour, the 
jungle shows few evidences of life, not a chirp 
of bird or song of insect, and no rustling of 
leaves in the heat which has descended so surely 
