234 TROPICAL NATURE I 
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. Llectrical disturb- 
ances are much more frequent, but not generally more violent 
than in the temperate regions. The wind-storms are rarely 
