AND THE COXGO FOREST 



199 



PATH THROUGH CONGO FOKEST XEAK LUPAXZULA S 



green. P'allen tree-triiuks had been mined by termites and covered 

 with dank moss. Huge as these prone monsters looked, if one attempted 

 to sit down on them they crumbled into rottenness, and one risked being 

 stung by great blue scorpions lurking in the crumbling wood.* 



* Sir Henry Stanley has given in liis "Darkest Africa" a fine description of the 

 Semliki Forest: '"There were clumps of palms, giant ferns, wild bananas, and tall 

 stately trees all coated with thick green moss from top to root ; impenetraMe thickets 

 of broad-leaved plants : and beads of moisture everywhere, besides tiny rillets oozing 

 out every few yards from under the matted tangle of vivid green and bedewed 

 undergrowth. It was the best specimen of a trojtical conservatory I had ever seen. . . . 

 In every tree-fork and along the great horizontal branches grew the loveliest ferns 

 and lichens, the ' elejihant ear ' by the dozen, the orchids in clo.se fellowship ; and the 

 bright green moss had formed soft circular cushions about them, and on almost every 

 fibre there trembled a clear water-drop." 



