236 GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA. 



grows in rich abundance. High up on the branches are seen the 

 very large nests built by the "tree-termite." 



Other tree stems, long since dead, serve as supports for colossal 

 vines, and with their impenetrable festoons form bowers as large 

 as houses, in which perpetual darkness reigns. From the depths of 

 the brushwood gleam flame-red blossoms, and rivalling them in 

 splendor are seen tall shrubs bearing large orange bell flowers. 



AN UNBROKEN IMPENETRABLE GREENERY. 



The eyes may roam in every direction, and meet with nothing; 

 but this unbroken impenetrable greenery. There where the narrow 

 pathways wind along, partly through and partly under the tangle 

 of shrub and bush ascending the valley wall, bare roots of trees 

 form the supports which hold the loose friable earth together. 

 Mouldering trunks, covered with thick mosses, are met with at 

 every step, and make our advance through these waves of massive 

 greenery anything but easy. 



The air we breathe is no longer that of the free sunlit steppe, 

 or of the cool leafy paths without ; it is the heavy, humid atmosphere 

 of our green-houses. There prevails a constant moisture, produced 

 by the breath of the woods itself, and which it is impossible to 

 escape. 



The Negroes belonging to the caravan, while prowling through 

 the backwoods in search of anything eatable, lighted here upon an 

 important discovery; their cry of triumph guided us to the place 

 where they stood clustered together round a tree, very busy with 

 their firebrands. They had discovered in the hollow stem a large 

 quantity of honey, and were preparing to secure their treasure 

 with great indifference to the results of their attack. Honey, wax, 

 and even the little bodies of the honey-makers slain in the combat, 

 were swallowed down by the Negroes without any distinction. 



One of the birds peculiar to some parts of Central Africa is 

 the fish-eagle. The best known and largest is the white-headed 

 eagle. The length is about three feet, and the extent of wings seven 

 feet; the female is somewhat larger. Its usual food is fish, but it 

 eats the flesh of other animals, when it can get it and often seizes 



