the morning.  Beetles fly, gnats buzz, and the varied voice of the feathered race resounds from every bush; the apes scream as they clamber into the thickets; the night moths, surprised by the approach of light, swarm back in giddy confusion to the dark recesses of the forest; there is life and motion in every path; the rats and all the gnawing tribe are hastily retiring to their holes, and the cunning marten, disappointed of his prey, steals from the farm-yard, leaving untouched the poultry, to whom the watchful cock has just proclaimed the return of day.

The growing light gradually completes the dawn, and at length the effulgent day breaks forth.  It is nature’s jubilee.  The earth awaits her bridegroom, and, behold, he comes!  Rays of red light illumine the sky, and now the sun rises.  In another moment he is above the horizon, and, emerging from a sea of fire, he casts his glowing rays upon the earth.  The magical twilight is gone; bright gleams flit from point to point, accompanied by deeper and deeper shadows.  Suddenly the enraptured observer beholds around him the joyous earth, arrayed in fresh dewy splendour, the fairest of brides.  The vault of heaven is cloudless; on the earth all is instinct with life, and every animal and plant is in the full enjoyment of existence.  At seven o’clock the dew begins to disappear, the land breeze falls off, and the increasing heat soon makes itself sensibly felt.  The sun ascends rapidly and vertically the transparent blue sky, from which every vapour seems to disappear; but presently, low in the western horizon, small, flaky, white clouds are formed.  These point towards the sun, and gradually extend far into the firmament.  By nine o’clock the meadow is quite dry, the forest appears in all the splendour of its glowing foliage.  Some buds are expanding; others, which had effloresced more rapidly, have already disappeared.  Another hour, and the clouds are higher:  they form broad, dense masses, and, passing under the sun, whose fervid and brilliant rays now pervade the whole landscape, occasionally darken and cool the atmosphere.  The plants shrink beneath the scorching rays, and resign themselves to the powerful influence of the ruler of the day.  The merry buzz of the gold-winged beetle and humming-bird becomes more audible.  The variegated butterflies and dragon-flies on the bank of the river, produce, by their gyratory movements, lively and fantastic plays of colour.  The ground is covered with swarms of ants, dragging along leaves for their architecture.  Even the most sluggish animals are roused by the stimulating power of the sun.  The alligator leaves his muddy bed, and encamps upon the hot sand; the turtle and lizard are enticed from their damp and shady retreats; and serpents of every colour crawl along the warm and sunny footpaths.