THE EQUATORIAL HEAVENS. 



23 



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 w^hich thus characterises a 

 considerable part of the year, is itself a striking pheno- 

 menon to an inhabitant of the temperate zones ; and 

 equally striking is the changed aspect of the starry 

 heavens. The grand constellation Orion, passes verti- 

 cally 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 lati- 

 tudes. 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 

 generally supposed to be characteristic of the tropics is 

 not by any means remarkable in the equatorial zone. 

 Electrical disturbances are much more frequent, but not 



