THE MONKEY FAMILY. 



83 



setting sun of gorgeous splendour : — with only a 

 trifling variation in the length of day, throughout 

 the whole year: — and so warm are the lower 

 regions of this zone, that the sensation of cold may 

 be said to be unknown, saving when paroxysms of 

 ague attack the human frame. 



In this delightful section of our planet, the 

 traveller's notice is arrested by forests of immea- 

 surable magnitude, where trees of surprising height, 

 are in never failing foliage. On numbers of these 

 trees, may be observed at one and the same time, a 

 profusion of buds and blossoms, and green fruit, 

 and ripe fruit, to the utter astonishment of every 

 European knight- errant who travels amongst them, 

 in quest of zoological adventures. 



Here hang huge nuts and giant pods in vast 

 profusion ; and when the latter have been eaten by 

 the monkeys, or have fallen to the ground, in their 

 over-ripened state, multitudes of other fruit-bearing 

 trees, in other parts of the forest, produce a new 

 supply in rotation, during the whole of the time, 

 that, the sun is performing his annual course, 

 through the well-known signs of the zodiac, so 

 beautifully enumerated by a latin poet. 



" Sunt Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo ; 

 Libraque, Scorpius. Arcitenens, Caper, Amphora, 

 Pisces." 



K 2 



