CHAPTER V 



THE OPEN CLEARING AND SECONDGROWTH 



The area in which we worked during six months of 

 1916, from March to August inchisive, may conveniently 

 be divided into two very distinct zones; 



First, the Clearing and Secondgrowth. 

 Second, the Jungle itself. 



I shall give a brief resume of the general ecology, and 

 the significance of distribution of the more abundant forms 

 of life in these two zones. The abrupt transition from the 

 Clearing and the Secondgrowth fauna to that of the Jungle 

 was one of the most striking phenomena which came under 

 our observation. 



Eight years ago in the vicinity of the Research Station, 

 the jungle extended quite down to the banks of the Maza- 

 runi. Xow, for the distance of many acres along the shore, 

 a clearing for the rubber plantation had been made. Six 

 hundred and fifty acres of jungle had been cut and burned 

 and planted with rubber trees which were just beginning 

 to be tapped. Another five hundred and fifty acres were 

 cleared three years ago, but were allowed to revert to second- 

 growth which already had reached a height of twenty feet 

 and more. 



These two are the areas which I am considering to- 

 gether as open clearing and secondgrowth. More detailed 

 study would reveal still finer distinctions or subdivisions, 

 such as grassy fields, open swamp lands, the course of a swift- 

 flowing creek and the banks of the Mazaruni itself. I in- 

 clude within this zone the fauna of a small open swamp on 

 Keow Island off shore. 



In the heart of the rubber plantation proper was the 

 house of Mr. Withers, and in the midst of the secondgrowth 



