Ch. X.] SHARP DELIMITATION OF FOREST. 185 



range on our right. To our left, about three miles 

 distant, rose the dark sinuous line of the great forest of 

 the Atlantic slope. Only a fringe of dark-foliaged trees 

 in the foreground was visible, the higher ground behind 

 was shrouded in a sombre pall of thick clouds that never 

 lifted, but seemed to cover a gloomy and mysterious 

 country beyond ; and though I had dived into the re- 

 cesses of these mountains again and again, and knew that 

 they were covered with beautiful vegetation and full of 

 animal life, yet the sight of that leaden-coloured barrier 

 of cloud resting on the forest tops, whilst the savannahs 

 were bathed in sunshine, ever raised in my mind vague 

 sensations of the unknown and the unfathomable. Our 

 course was nearly parallel to this gloomy forest, but we 

 gradually approached it. The line that separates it 

 from the grassy savannahs is sinuous and irregular. In 

 some places a dark promontory of trees juts out into 

 the savannahs, in others a green grassy hill is seen 

 almost surrounded by forest. When I first came to the 

 country, I was much puzzled to understand why the 

 forest should end just where it did. It is not caused by 

 any change in the nature of the soil or bed-rock. It 

 cannot be for lack of moisture, for around Libertad it 

 rains for at least six months out of the twelve. The 

 surface of the ground is not level on the savannahs, but 

 consists of hill and dale, just as in the forest. Altogether 

 the conditions seemed to be exactly the same, and it 

 appeared a difficult matter to account for the fact that 

 the forest should end at an irregular but definite line, 

 and that at that boundary grassy savannahs should 

 commence. After seeing the changes that were wrought 

 during the four and a half years that I was in the 



