236 TROPICAL NATURE I 
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, 
