1836.] APPEARANCE OF THE FORESTS. 



433 



Wales. Everywhere we have an open woodland, the ground 

 being partially covered with a very thin pasture, with little 

 appearance of verdure. The trees nearly all belong to one 

 family, and mostly have their leaves placed in a vertical, instead 

 of, as in Europe, in a nearly horizontal position : the foliage is 

 scanty, and of a peculiar pale green tint, without any gloss. 

 Hence the woods appear light and shadowless : this, although a 

 loss of comfort to the traveller under the scorching rays of 

 summer, is of importance to the farmer, as it allows grass to 

 grow where it otherwise would not. The leaves are not shed 

 periodically: this character appears common to the entire 

 southern hemisphere, namely, South America, Australia, and 

 the Cape of Good Hope. The inhabitants of this hemisphere, 

 and of the intertropical regions, thus lose perhaps one of the 

 most glorious, though to our eyes common, spectacles in the 

 world the first bursting into full foliage of the leafless tree. 

 They may, however, say that we pay dearly for this by 

 having the land covered with mere naked skeletons for so many 

 months. This is too true ; but our senses thus acquire a keen 

 relish for the exquisite green of the spring, which the eyes of 

 those living within the tropics, sated during the long year with 

 the gorgeous productions of those glowing climates, can never 

 experience. The greater number of the trees, with the exception 

 of some of the Blue-gums, do not attain a large size ; but they 

 grow tall and tolerably straight, and stand well apart. The bark 

 of some of the Eucalypti falls annually, or hangs dead in long 

 shreds which swing about with the wind, and give to the woods 

 a desolate and untidy appearance. I cannot imagine a more com- 

 plete contrast, in every respect, than between the forests of Val- 

 divia or Chiloe, and the woods of Australia. 



At sunset, a party of a score of the black aborigines passed by, 

 each carrying, in their accustomed manner, a bundle of spears 

 and other weapons. By giving a leading young man a shilling, 

 they were easily detained, and threw their spears for my amuse- 

 ment. They were all partly clothed, and several could speak a 

 little English : their countenances were good-humoured and 

 pleasant, and they appeared far from being such utterly degraded 

 beings as they have usually been represented. In their own arts 

 they are admirable. A cap being fixed at thirty yards distance, 



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