302 
LEGUANEA MOUNTAINS.' 
we heard once or twice in the evening, the long-drawn, 
clear, mellow note of the Solitaire {Ptilogonys armil- 
latus\ from the depth of the darkening woods. 
The night was delightfully cold and quiet; the 
coldness made the unfamiliar appendage of a blanket 
quite agreeable ; the stillness was peculiar, such a 
total absence of sounds as one never finds anywhere 
in the lowlands, nowhere, I think, except in very lone 
situations at a lofty elevation ; as if the silence could 
he felt. In the morning we again looked with ad- 
miration on the extended prospect ; there was some- 
thing exceedingly interesting in the effect of the misty 
clouds that hung about the face of the towering 
mountain to the east.^ Sometimes it would be quite 
hidden, overspread with a mass of grey cloud that 
joined its fellows in the sky ; then it would appear 
dimly, as if covered with a veil of thin muslin ; then 
openings here and there would break, revealing the 
dark green, almost black, surface of the mountain- 
side ; these openings, rents in the cloudy veil, would 
flit along, borne by the breeze, now closing up, now 
enlarging, now coalescing with others ; the towering 
mass at one time almost distinct and uncovered, then 
gradually dimming, and again brightening ; — so that 
the changes seemed almost magical. The eastern sky 
was concealed by this vast mass, far up towards the 
zenith, so that we had no opportunity of seeing the 
sun rise, but we could witness the sudden irradiation 
of the plains and distant hills below, 
* This must have been St. Catherine’s Peak, or one of its mighty 
spurs. 
