180 JUNGLE PEACE 



Before we begin our trail, it will be wise to 

 try to understand this twenty-foot tangle, 

 stretching almost a mile back from Kalacoon, 

 Three years before it was pure jungle. Then 

 man came with ax and saw and fire and one by 

 one the great giants were felled mora, green- 

 heart, crabwood each crashing its way to earth 

 after centuries of upward growth. The under- 

 brush in the dark, high jungle is comparatively 

 scanty. Light-starved and fungus-plagued, the 

 shrubs and saplings are stunted and weak. So 

 when only the great stumps were left standing, 

 the erstwhile jungle showed as a mere shambles 

 of raw wood and shriveled foliage. After a 

 time fire was applied, and quickly, as in the 

 case of resinous trees, or with long, slow smolder- 

 ings of half -rotted, hollow giants, the huge boles 

 were consumed. 



For a period, utter desolation reigned. Char- 

 coal and gray ash covered everything. No life 

 stirred. Birds had flown, reptiles and insects 

 made their escape or succumbed. Only the 

 saffron-faced vultures swung past, on the watch 

 for some half-charred creature. Almost at once, 

 however, the marvelous vitality of the tropical 

 vegetation asserted itself. Phoenix-like, from 



