8 BAHIA. 



company to all the officers of the " Challenger," and the officials 

 of the line, who were Englishmen, were extremely hospitable 

 and gave us every possible assistance. 



Leaving Bahia, the railroad led along the shores of the bay, 

 fringed with gardens and houses. Further on, the land was 

 covered with wild vegetation, with occasional sugar plantations 

 and frequent cottages. Almost the whole of the land has been 

 cleared at some time or other of the dense forest which once 

 covered it. 



On a sugar plantation, ground is cleared in patches. The 

 patches are planted and cultivated for about fifteen years and 

 are then allowed to run waste, or sleep, as the Brazilians put 

 it. A fresh piece of land is then cleared, and so the whole 

 estate is gradually gone over, and the original clearing eventually 

 reached again. The forest land on the banks of the Lower 

 Moselle is cultivated in much the same way. 



There were no large trees to be seen along the route, but 

 rather a dense growth of large shrubs and small trees, bound 

 together by creepers and loaded with epiphytic plants, amongst 

 which the BromeIiacea;,^^\ax\X.?,, allied to the pine-apple, were most 

 conspicuous, especially one with a bright scarlet and blue 

 inflorescence. 



Near the station where we stopped there was a small river 

 and a patch of primaeval forest, which was what we had come 

 to see. A guide led us a short distance into the forest. The 

 most striking feature about it was the immense height of the 

 trees, their close packing, and great variety. At home we are 

 accustomed to forests composed mainly of one gregarious 

 species of tree. Here the trunks are covered with parasites 

 and climbers. Mistletoes of various kinds, some of them with 

 scarlet flowers, grow amongst the upper branches, from which 

 also hang down the stems of various creepers in festoons, often 

 sweeping the ground. In the forks of the great branches 

 repose the large green masses of the Bromeliaceous plants, 

 and up the trunks climb numerous aroids with their huge 

 sagittate leaves. The ground is covered with decaying branches, 

 and here and there dead trunks, on which grow fungi in 

 abundance. 



The forest was so thick as to be quite gloomy and dark, and 

 as we passed along the path we heard no sound and saw no 

 living animal, except a few butterflies {He/icon ict), some small 

 fish in a little stream, along which the path led, and an Oven- 

 bird gathering mud for its curious nest. There were two 

 deserted armadillo holes close to the path, but we saw no 

 mammal of any kind, nor did I see a single wild mammal 

 during my short stay in Ilrazil, notwithstanding the abundance 



