116 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



for it stretches away to the Amazon and far beyond, 

 enclosing the banks of the mighty tributaries of the 

 mightiest of rivers ; spreading over the highlands of Brazil 

 to the deserts of Bolivia, and the pampas of Paraguay ; 

 clothing the slopes of the snow-crovsrned Andes, it covers 

 viith the luxuriance and immensity of its growth a con- 

 siderable portion of the South American continent. Who 

 can hope (to violate the seclusion of its impenetrable 

 recesses ? 



