PDF - Wallace Online

236 TROPICAL NATUREheat increased hourly, and towards two o'clock reached 92 to93 Fahr., by which time every voice of bird and mammalwas hushed. The leaves, which were so moist and fresh inearly morning, now became lax and drooping, and flowers shedtheir petals.On most days in June and July a heavy showerwould fall some time in the afternoon, producing a mostwelcome coolness. The approach of the rain-clouds was aftera uniform fashion very interesting to observe. First, the coolsea-breeze which had commenced to blow about ten o'clock,and which had increased in force with the increasing powerof the sun, would flag,and finally die away. The heat andelectric tension of the atmosphere would then become almostinsupportable. Languor and uneasiness would seize on everyone, even the denizens of the forest betraying it by theirmotions. White clouds would appear in the east and gatherinto cumuli, with an increasing blackness along their lowerportions. The whole eastern horizon would become almostsuddenly black, and this would spread upwards, the sun atlength becoming obscured. Then the rush of a mighty windis heard through the forest, swaying the tree-tops ;a vividflash of lightning bursts forth, then a crash of thunder, anddown streams the deluging rain. Such storms soon cease,leaving bluish-black motionless clouds in the sky until night.Meantime all nature is refreshed ;but heaps of flower-petalsand fallen leaves are seen under the trees. Towards eveninglife revives again, and the ringing uproar is resumed frombush and tree. The following morning the sun again risesin a cloudless sky ;and so the cycle is completed ; spring,summer, and autumn, as it were in one tropical day. Thedays are more or less like this throughout the year. Alittle difference exists between the dry and wet seasons ;butgenerally the dry season, which lasts from July to December,is varied with showers, and the wet, from January to June,with sunny days. It results from this, that the periodicalphenomena of plants and animals do not take place at aboutthe same time in all species, or in the individuals of any givenspecies, as they do in temperate countries. In Europe awoodland scene has its spring, its summer, its autumnal, andits winter aspects. In the equatorial forests the aspect is thesame or nearly so every day in the year ; budding, flowering,