This violence, however, seldom lasts more than an hour or two, and gradually abates after intermittent paroxysms, and a serenely clear sky supervenes. For some days heavy showers continue to fall at intervals in the forenoon; and the evenings which follow are embellished by sunsets of the most gorgeous splendour, lighting the fragments of clouds that survive the recent storm.
The extreme heat of the previous month becomes modified in June; the winds continue steadily to blow from the southwest, and frequent showers, accompanied by lightning and thunder, serve still further to diffuse coolness throughout the atmosphere and verdure over the earth. So instantaneous is the response of nature to the influence of returning moisture, that in a single day, and almost between sunset and dawn, the green hue of reviving vegetation begins to tint the saturated ground.
In ponds from which, but a week before, the wind blew clouds of sandy dust, the peasantry may now be seen catching the re?nimated fish; and tank-shells and water-beetles revive and wander over the submerged sedges. The electricity of the air stimulates the vegetation of the trees; and scarcely a week elapses before the plants are covered with the larv? of butterflies, the forest is murmuring with the hum of insects, and the air is harmonious with the voice of birds.
- J. EMERSON TENNENT
WORDS
aquenous, watery. augmented, increased. crevices, fissures. declivities, slopes. exhaustion, weariness. instantaneous, immediate. intermittent, at intervals. inundations, floods. languishes, droops.
larv?, new-hatched young. lassitude, lafiguor. modified, lessened.
moisture, dampness. monotony, sameness. obliterated, effaced. paroxysms, fits. phenomena, appearances. saturation, fulness. signalized, distinguished. stimulates, excites. submerged, immersed. suspense, delay. temperature, degree of heat. vegetation, plant life.
NOTES
① The monsoon.-The monsoons are periodical winds which prevail in the Indian Ocean, especially between Africa and Hindustan, blowing half the year in one direction, and the other half in the opposite direction. The north-east monsoon, which carries rain to Africa, blows from November to April. The south-west monsoon, which carries rain to India, blows from May to October, being caused by the higher temperature of the continent of Asia during that season.
② Deciduous trees, trees which lose their leaves in autumn, as opposed to evergreens.
③ Singalese, natives of Ceylon.
④ Greatest northern declination-that point in the sun"s apparent path at which it reaches its greatest northern distance from the equator. The circle drawn round the Earth at this point is called the Tropic of Cancer , because the sun then enters the constellation Cancer . It is called tropic [Gr. trepo , I turn], or turning-point, because then the sun"s path turns southward again. The turning-point is also called the solstice [Lat. sol , sun; sto , I stand], because at that time the sun seems to stand still in its position in the zodiac for several days. This point is 23 degrees north of the equator. The sun reaches it on the 21st of June, which is called the summer solstice , and marks the longest day in the year in the northern hemisphere. Six months later (22nd December), the sun attains its greatest southern declination, forming the winter solstice , and marking the shortest day in the northern hemisphere. The circle of the globe drawn through this point is the Tropic of Capricorn ; so called because then the sun enters the constellation Capricornus . At the intervening middle points the sun"s path crosses the equator, making the Equinoxes of spring and autumn, when day and night are of the same length all over the globe.
QUSTIONS
What is the monsoon? When does its change occur in Ceylon? How are the commotions of the atmosphere which accompany the change regarded?
In what state is vegetable nature before it arrives? What effect has the drought upon the animal creation? What are the first indications of the approaching change? Whence does the wind derive its moisture? By what is the arrival of the monsoon accompanied? What is remarkable about the rain? How soon do its effects appear in nature?
AMBITION CLAD IN HUMILITY.
"TIS a common proof That lowliness is young Ambition"s ladder, Whereto the climber upward turns his face; But, when he once attains the utmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back,Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees, By which he did ascend.
- SHAKESPEARE
