At dawn and at sunset the howler monkeys screamed together and the parrakeets broke into shrill chatter, but during the hot hours of the day only the full drone of insects, like the beat of a distant surf, filled the ear, while nothing moved amid the solemn vistas of stupendous trunks, fading away into the darkness which held us in.

to float a boat

I like Morgon – powerful, dark and fleshy, with black rather than red fruit, it reminds me of walking into a deep cavern – and I think Julienas (masculine, earthy and granitic) and Chiroubles (the highest, and delicate, like birdsong) are under-rated.

We obtained a collection of coprolites from Thambetochen chauliodous, one of four species of flightless Hawaiian waterfowl known collectively as moa-nalos.