Slow Signal Fade ebooks

Soon after, the fireflies in great diversity of species came
forth and flitted about the trees. As night advanced, all became
silent in the forest, save the occasional hooting of tree-frogs,
or the monotonous chirping of wood-crickets and grasshoppers.
We made but little progress on the 20th and two following days,
on account of the unsteadiness of the wind. The dry season had
been of very brief duration this year; it generally lasts in this
part of the Amazons from July to January, with a short interval
of showery weather in November. The river ought to sink thirty or
thirty-five feet below its highest point; this year it had
declined only about twenty-five feet, and the November rains
threatened to be continuous. The drier the weather the stronger
blows the east wind; it now failed us altogether, or blew gently
for a few hours merely in the afternoons. I had hitherto seen the
great river only in its sunniest aspect; I was now about to
witness what it could furnish in the way of storms.


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