MANGROVE SWAMPS 



Such a river will have probably flowed through hundreds 

 of miles of the most exuberant tropical forest, where growth 

 is never checked by the cold grasp of winter. 



Its waters are yellowish brown or cafe au lait coloured, 

 because they are full of mud and of decaying vegetation, with 

 dead leaves and decaying branches floating on the surface. 

 So full are such rivers of decaying material that they have 

 a distinct and unmistakable smell, which has been compared 

 to " crushed marigolds." 



So soon as the muddy water reaches the sea, most of its 

 mud is deposited and forms great banks and shoals of shift- 

 ing odoriferous slime, which confuses and interferes with the 

 discharging mouths of the river. 



It is upon these changing, horrible-smelling banks of 

 bottomless slime that the Mangrove is especially intended 

 to develop. 



If one takes a canoe in such a delta and paddles inwards 

 on the incoming tide, a dense forest of glossy-green man- 

 groves will be found to cover the whole coast-line, and also 

 to extend far inland by the winding creeks, lagoons, and 

 river channels. 



The whole theory of the mangroves becomes clearly 

 revealed as soon as the water begins to sink at low tide. 

 First one notices that the stem of every mangrove ends 

 below, not in a single trunk, but in an enormous number of 

 arched, stilt-like supporting roots. Not only the stem but 

 the branches also give off* descending roots, which branch into 

 four or five grasping arched fingers as soon as they get near 

 the water. When they reach the mud, these fingers grow 

 down into it and form a new supporting root to the tree. 

 It is very difficult to give any idea of the extraordinary 

 appearance of these mangrove roots. 



157 



