CiiAF. I.] FOREST TRAVELLING IX CEYLOX. 413 



feeling experienced was ratlier nervous and uneasy; 

 emergino; for an instant from beneath an ocean of foliafje 

 in whose depths we were wandering, viewing its boundless 

 green expanse extending on every side, "without inequahty, 

 and apparently without end, — then descending again into 

 the depths of the forest, and trusting to our senii-civihsed 

 guides to pilot us in safety through the endless labp-uith 

 of woods. 



There is something solemn and impressive in the 

 majestic repose of these leafy solitudes, where the deep 

 silence is unbroken, except by the hum of innumerable 

 insects, whose noises, though far too fine and delicate to 

 be individually audible, unite to form an aggregate of 

 gentle sounds, that murmur softly on every side, and pro- 

 duce an effect singularly soothmg and di'eamy. It is a 

 popular, but erroneous behef, that these dense woods are 

 the dweUings of numerous animals, which find food and 

 shelter within their deep recesses ; and nothing more 

 powerfidly excites sm^prise in a stranger's mind, than the 

 comparative scarcity of hfe in the heart of these thick 

 forests. Even birds are rarely seen in their depths, and 

 other creatures begin to appear only when we come to the 

 confines of the plains, and enter those pastm-e lands and 

 park-like openings, which occur in the immediate vicuiity 

 of the low country. 



The fact is that the density of the forest, though capable 

 of affording cover to the wilder carnivora, is unftxvourable 

 to the growth of any kind of herbage fitted for the sup- 

 port of the graminivorous animals. Quadrupeds are 

 therefore compelled to keep for the most part on the 

 verge of the open country, and in the \dcinity of water, 

 where the phytophagous tribes find abundance of food, 

 and the carnivorous congregate attracted by the resort of 

 the others. 



Generally, our horses were able to ford, or to swim 

 over, such rivers as we were obhged to cross on our 

 route ; but tlie more rapid and impetuous streams we 

 passed in canoes or on rafts formed of sticks laid across 



