THE IMAGE OF WAE. 



CHAPTEH I. 



IN THE JUNGLE. 



To those who have never experienced it, the idea of 

 existence in an atmosphere not differing greatly from 

 that of an orchid-house — a perpetual damp heat, 

 with the thermometer never, by day or night, in 

 winter or summer, under 76 degrees — does not seem 

 enticing. Nevertheless, there were compensations, 

 and, looking back to it over the gulf of years spent 

 in different lands, when the minor miseries of exist- 

 ence are forgotten, we cannot but own that we 

 passed some very happy days after all in equatorial 

 regions. Looking back thus, there is even a pleasant 

 memory of those many evenings spent in mess 

 verandahs, beneath which the great seas, straight 

 from the Antarctic ice, broke incessantly in monot- 

 onous thunder, though it must be confessed that 

 they were excessively tedious at the time. But this 

 was at a garrison far enough from any jungle at 

 all. It is useless to attempt to conceal the exact 

 locality of my tropical experiences, so that I may 



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