ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE 80UFRIERB. 337 



in these wilds. Beyond the limits of the coffee grove 

 we came upon the borders of the high-woods, where 

 one must go to see the vegetation of the tropics in its 

 greatest perfection of growth and luxuriance. 



There is a suggestiveness of giant trees and a re- 

 freshing thought of cool retreats in the appellation, 

 universal throughout these islands, bestowed upon 

 these high forests, to distinguish them from those of 

 the lowland. As you set foot over the sharply-defined 

 line of demarkation, you leave the sun with his scorch- 

 ing beams behind, and enter a gloomy arch beneath 

 a canopy of leaves. The trail is sinuous and slip- 

 pery, and winds beneath huge trees, which we feel — 

 for we cannot see their crowns — rear their heads 

 aloft. Overhead is a leafy vault, through which the 

 sun cannot send a gleam, save now and then a needle 

 ray ; and through this vaulted roof are thrust up the 

 trunks of mighty trees, with a diameter, from but- 

 tress to buttress, of twenty feet. And these broad 

 buttresses, which spread out on every side as sup- 

 ports to the main trunk, are studies in themselves. 

 In the spaces between them there is room to pitch 

 a tent. Fifty, sixty feet up, begin the broad-armed 

 limbs, which spread over a vast area ; and from these 

 limbs depend attractive and wonderful ropes and cord- 

 age of nature's making, which descend from out the 

 canopy above as from the zenith of heaven, and touch- 

 ing the earth, climb again into space, no one knows 

 where, no one knows how. They are of all sizes, 

 and twisted into every conceivable shape — some like 

 huge hawsers and cables, and others small as bass- 

 lines and stretched as straight and taut as the rig- 

 ging of a ship. Surrounded by the net-work of lianes 



