SOIL AND CLIMATE. o are equally divided, or with but imperceptible variation, and, as in all tropical climates, there is no twilight; for with sunset night begins. During the dry season, everything in nature appears desolate and dismal ; the plants are burnt up ; the trees lose their leaves, and ai>pear like brooms ; no bird is heard to sing ; no animal delights to disport in the gladness of its existence ; every living being creeps towards the forest to secrete itself, seeking shelter from the fearful heat ; save that, now and then, an ostrich will be seen traversing the desert fields in flying pace, or a giraffe hastening from one oasis to another. In this season, however, frightful hurricanes occasionally arise, and fill the minds of those, who have not been witness of such a phenomenon in nature before, with the utmost consternation. A powerful current of air, of suffocating heat, blows fiercely from one point of the heavens to the other, devastating everjlhing that lies in its course. Tlie atmosphere bears at these times generally a leaden grey appearance, and is impregnated with fine sand : the sun loses its brilliancy, and total darkness envelopes the earth, rendering it even difficult to distinguish objects at a few paces distant. The sky changes suddenly, becomes of a yellow colour, then assumes a reddish hue, and the sun appears as a blood-red disk. The wind howls, tears up everything within its reach ; houses, fences, and trees by the roots, carrying them away with it; levels mounds of sand, and piles up fresh hills. In short,