76 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



four square feet of jungle mold which I recently made in 

 Para, Brazil. ' INIy experience in tropical jungles has shown, 

 not that they contain a paucity of various forms of life, but 

 an contraire, taken in the aggregate, they possess a much 

 richer fauna than any type of region where I have studied. 

 But this infinity of organisms is not blatantly revealed. They 

 are not as apparent to the casual observer as the soaring 

 hawk or the flock of blackbirds in the open. Guarded jeal- 

 ously by their colors, patterns, shapes and their fear of the 

 death which awaits them on every hand, they remain con- 

 cealed until the intruder, motionless, identifies himself with 

 the harmless vegetation, or makes his way, moccasin shod, 

 clad in dull, neutral garb, quietly, silently, with the soft step 

 of the Indian. 



Skirting the coasts of these tropical lands, or steaming 

 or paddling up the rivers, the eye always encoimters the 

 same general view, a mighty wall of green vegetation. 

 Whether the month be January, May or September, the 

 sun beats warmly down and the great cliffs of emerald foli- 

 age rear their heads on high. "Eternal summer reigns" says 

 the guide-book, and the bromidically inclined traveller ech- 

 oes the statement. 



However, as soon as one begins to study the jungle and 

 day after day looks out upon it, and, walking through and 

 through it, makes daily notes of the changes overhead and 

 beneath his feet, the realization comes that spring and sum- 

 mer are quite distinct, autumn and winter easily differen- 

 tiated. And this is true even of those places, like Bartica 

 district, where the dry seasons are not times of drought, but 

 merit their name only in comparison with the intensity of 

 the rainy periods. 



The first thing, however, that an observer learns in the 

 tropics is that no law can be laid down as absolute. The 

 continual warm weather and humidity, and the tremendous 

 competition between the multitude of organisms results in 



^ Zoologica, II, Nos. 3 and 4, pp. 55-119. 



