rom November to May. The rainy season is during August,
September and October, when there is thunder and a light variable wind
from south-east or south-west. The Harmattan, a very dry east wind from
the African continent, occasionally makes itself felt. The heat of
summer is high, the thermometer ranging from 80 deg. to 90 deg. Fahr.
near the sea. The unhealthy season is the period during and following
the rains, when vegetation springs up with surprising rapidity, and
there is much stagnant water, poisoning the air on the lower grounds.
Remittent fevers are then common. The people of all the islands are also
subject in May to an endemic of a bilious nature called locally
_levadias_, but the cases rarely assume a dangerous form, and recovery
is usually attained in three or four days without medical aid. On some
of the islands rain has occasionally not fallen for three years. The
immediate consequence is a failure of the crops, and this is followed by
the death of great numbers from starvation, or the epidemics which
usually break out afterwards.

_Flora_.--Owing largely to the widespread destruction of timber for
fuel, and to the frequency of drought, the flora of the islands is poor
when compared with that of the Canaries, the Azores or Madeira. It is
markedly tropical in character; and although some seventy wild-flowers,
grasses, ferns, &c., are peculiar to the archipelago, the majority of
plants are those found on the neighbouring African littoral. Systematic
afforestation has not been attempted, but the Portuguese have introduced
a few trees, such as the baobab, eucalyptus and dragon-tree, besides
many plants of economic value. Coffee-growing, an industry dating from
1790, is the chief resource of the people of Santo Antao, Fogo and Sao
Thiago; maize, millet, sugar-cane, manioc, excellent oranges, pumpkins,
sweet potatoes, and, to a less extent, tobacco and cotton are produced.
On most of the islands coco-nut and date palms, tamarinds and bananas
may be seen; orchil is gathered; and indigo and castor-oil are produced.
Of considerable importance is the physic-nut (_Jatropha curcas_), which
is exported.

_Fauna_.--Quails are found in all the islands; rabbits in Boa Vista, Sao
Thiago and Fogo; wild boars in Sao Thiago. Both black and grey rats are
common. Goats, horses and asses are reared, and goatskins are exported.
The neighbouring sea abounds with fish, and coral fisheries are carried
on by a colony of Neapolitans