Streaming replication and pg_dump

Hi,

I have a streaming replication slave, which I've setup for backup purposes
only. After running pg_dump on it (took around 8 hours) I ended up with 64
".ready" files in pg_xlog/archive_status.

These files have been there now for more than 24 hours.

These are some related configuration settings I modified, in order to be
able to run pg_dump for such amount of time:

max_standby_archive_delay = 1h
max_standby_streaming_delay = 10h

I've been reading postgres documentation, but I still have not a clear
understanding of what are the implication of these files being there, if
they should be removed by postgres, or if something failed and I should
redo the replication from scratch.

I'd appreciate any comment.

Many thanks.