Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/315

 and this was a most delightful time. The vegetation which had become parched up in November had been freshened by the showery weather of December, and the open places were covered with a carpet of the brightest verdure. The marly and sandy terrace-formed beaches were clothed with a great diversity of flowering shrubs. Birds and insects were far more numerous and active than they had been before. A species of swallow of a brown colour, with a short square tail (Cotyle), then made its appearance in great numbers, and built its nests in holes of the bank on which the village is built, trilling forth in the mornings and evenings a short but sweet song. The east wind recommenced. It blew at first gently, but increased in strength daily as the dryness augmented: and with it came a dense fog, a rare phenomenon in this country, but which I found to be of regular occurrence in the central parts of the Lower Amazons when the dry season was much prolonged. For three successive weeks the daily order of the weather was almost uniform. The mornings dawned with a clear sky, a stiff breeze blowing and tossing the waters into billows, searching through our dwellings, and communicating a healthful exhilarating glow to the body. As the sun ascended, a light mistiness crept along the lower strata of the atmosphere; after midday this increased in density, until an hour before sunset the sun became obscured, and no longer produced that sickening heat which at all other times was so depressing in the late hours of afternoon. An hour or two after sunset the mist cleared away, and the nights were starlit and deliciously cool. Every day the fog