THE AMAZON VALLEY. 
429 
I 
S mediate neighbourhood. There are however remarkable 
I deviations from this general routine, in particular loca- 
lities. Para itself is one of these exceptional places. 
: Here the seasons are so modified, as to render the cli- 
j mate one of the most agreeable in the world. During the 
h 
j whole of the dry season, scarcely ever more than three 
days or a week passes without a slight thunderstorm 
^ and heavy shower, which comes on about four in the 
J afternoon, and by six has cleared off again, leaving the 
j atmosphere delightfully pure and cool, and all vegetable 
! and animal life refreshed and invigorated. Had I only 
I judged of the climate of Para from my first residence 
. of a year, I might be thought to have been impressed 
by the novelty of the tropical climate ; but on my re- 
' turn from a three years’ sojourn on the Upper Amazon 
and Rio Negro, I was equally struck with the wonder- 
ful freshness and brilliancy of the atmosphere, and the 
j balmy mildness of the evenings, which are certainly not 
i equalled in any other part I have visited. 
The wet season has not so many stormy and cloudy 
ij days, as in other parts. Sunshine and rain alternate, 
i| and the days are comparatively bright and cheerful, 
even when rainy. Generally, the variation of the ther- 
I; mometer in any one day does not exceed 15°; 75° 
being the lowest, and 90° the highest. The greatest va- 
riation in one day is not, I think, ever more than 20° ; 
and in four years, the lowest and highest temperatures 
were 70° and 95°, giving only an extreme variation of 
25°. A more equable climate probably does not exist 
on the earth. (See Diagram, Plate III.) 
On the Guiana side of the Amazon, in the islands of 
