JUNGLE LIFE 83 



ing the rains, my thoughts of birds and other vertebrates 

 were momentarily erased by the sudden sight of fairy castles, 

 laces, sunshades, pikes, spears, pagodas, spirals and scores 

 of other forms of fungi for which no simile existed. Here, 

 too, grew the variegated caladiums and other ground plants, 

 and here were those wonderful buttresses which enable the 

 trees to reach such stupendous heights with such slight girth 

 of trunk. 



In the low and mid-heights was found the soft mist of 

 green foliage of the jungle undergrowth, springing from 

 thin, twig-like branches and supported on marvelously slen- 

 der stems. The chief zone of this undergrowth was between 

 five and seventy feet, above which the tall, straight trunks 

 of the larger trees were dominant, witli no trace of branch 

 or leaf until the luxuriant crowns were reached. There all 

 the pent-up vegetative energy, all the suppressed functions 

 other than mere altitude of barren trunks were released in 

 a dense outburst of leaves, branches, flowers and fruit. 



As one walked through the jungle, tinamou and par- 

 tridges sprang up and whirred away, agoutis and armadillos 

 scuttled from their feeding grounds. Tracks of deer, tapir, 

 paca and various cats showed the movements of these ani- 

 mals during the preceding night. Grisons and, more rarely, 

 small jungle mice and rats were observed. On fallen leaves 

 tiny jungle frogs shrilled, and giant marine toads lived their 

 sluggish life. Salamanders and serpents were rare. Once 

 in a while a bushmaster, fer-de-lance, or some harmless snake 

 was seen coiled or slowly slipping over the leaves. Now and 

 then a big yellow turtle ploughed heavily along. All the 

 greater and lesser fry of the underworld whose delight was 

 in decayed wood, who called the mold home, were here — 

 strange grubs and beetles, scorpions, myriapods, peripatus 

 and all wingless, creeping things. 



When I raised my eyes to the level of the low jungle — 

 to my own height — an entirely new world aj^peared. That 

 of two dimensions was left behind and one of three entered. 



