STORMS 



253 



by a film of mucus. The fine weather breaks up often 

 with great suddenness about the beginning of February. 

 Violent squalls from the west or the opposite direction to 

 the trade-wind then occur. They give very little warning, 

 and the first generally catches the people unprepared. 

 They fall in the night, and blowing directly into the 

 harbour, with the first gust sweep all vessels from their 

 anchorage ; in a few minutes, a mass of canoes, large 

 and small, including schooners of fifty tons burthen, are 

 clashing together, pell mell, on the beach. I have reason 

 to remember these storms, for I was once caught in one 

 myself, whilst crossing the river in an undecked boat, 

 about a day's journey from Santarem. They are accom- 

 panied with terrific electric explosions, the sharp claps of 

 thunder falling almost simultaneously with the blinding 

 flashes of lightning. Torrents of rain follow the first 

 outbreak ; the wind then gradually abates, and the rain 

 subsides into a steady drizzle, which continues often for 

 the greater part of the succeeding day. After a week or 

 two of showery weather the aspect of the country is com- 

 pletely changed. The parched ground in the nieghbour- 

 hood of Santarem breaks out, so to speak, in a rash of 

 greenery ; the dusty, languishing trees gain, without 

 having shed their old leaves, a new clothing of tender 

 green foliage ; a wonderful variety of quick-growing 

 leguminous plants springs up, and leafy creepers over- 

 run the ground, the bushes, and the trunks of trees. 

 One is reminded of the sudden advent of spring after a 

 few warm showers in northern climates ; I was the more 

 struck by it as nothing similar is witnessed in the virgin 

 forests amongst which I had passed the four years pre- 

 vious to my stay in this part. The grass on the campos 

 is renewed, and many of the campo trees, especially the 

 myrtles, which grow abundantly in one portion of the 

 district, begin to flower, attracting by the fragrance of 

 their blossoms a great number and variety of insects, 

 more particularly Coleoptera. Many kinds of birds ; 

 parrots, toucans, and barbets, which live habitually in the 

 forest, then visit the open places. A few weeks of com- 

 paratively dry weather generally intervene in March, 

 after a month or two of rain. The heaviest rains fall 

 in April, May, and June ; they come in a succession of 

 showers, with sunny gleamy weather in the intervals. 

 June and July are the months when the leafy luxuriance 



