126 THE ATLANTIC. [chap.hi. 



the scrub was so thick, what with fallen tree-trunks, covered 

 with epij)hytes of all descriptions, and cycads, and arums, and 

 great thorny spikes of Bromelia, and a dense undergrowth, 

 principally of melastornads, many of them richly covered with 

 blue and purple flowers. Above the undergrowth, the tall 

 forest trees ran up, straight and branchless, for thirty or forty 

 feet ; and when they began to branch, a second tier of vegeta- 

 tion spread over our heads, almost shutting out the sky. Great 

 climbing Monsteras and other arals, and epiphytic bromeliads, 

 and orchids, some of them distilling from their long trusses of 

 lovely flowers a fragrance which was almost overpowering, and 

 mazes of Tillandsia hanging down like tangled hanks of gray 

 twine. Every available space between the trees was occupied 

 by lianas twining together or running up singly, in size varying 

 from a whip-cord to a foot in diameter. These lianas were our 

 chief danger, for they hung down in long loops from the trees 

 and lay upon the ground, and were apt to entangle us and 

 catch the horses' feet as we rode on. As time wore on, it got 

 very close and hot, and the forest relapsed into silence, most of 

 the creatures retiring for their noonday siesta. The false roof 

 of epiphytes and parasites kept off the glare of the sun, and 

 it was only at intervals that a sheaf of vertical beams struck 

 through a rift in the green canopy, and afforded us a passing 

 glimpse of the tops of the forest trees, uniting in a delicate 

 open tracery far above us. 



For some hours our brave little horses struggled on, some- 

 times cantering a little where the path was pretty clear, and 

 more usually picking their way carefully, and sometimes, with 

 all their care, floundering into the mud -holes imperfectly 

 bridged over with trunks of trees. 



As we had made our ascent at first, all this time we had been 

 riding nearly on a level on the plateau between the two river 

 valleys. Suddenly the wood opened, and we rode up to the 

 edge of a long, irregular cliff bounding the valley of Santo 



