Chap. IV. A WATER-PATH. 231 



dell contracts gradually towards the head of the rivulet, 

 and the forest then becomes denser ; the water-path 

 also diminishes in width, and becomes more winding, on 

 account of the closer growth of the trees. The boughs 

 of some are stretched forth at no great height over one's 

 head, and are seen to be loaded with epiphytes ; one 

 orchid I noticed particularly, on account of its bright 

 yellow flowers growing at the end of flower-sterns 

 several feet long. Some of the trunks, especially those 

 of palms, close beneath their crowns, were clothed with 

 a thick mass of glossy shield-shaped Pothos plants, 

 mingled with ferns. Arrived at this part we were, in fact, 

 in the heart of the virgin forest. We heard no noises 

 of animals in the trees, and saw only one bird, the 

 sky-blue chatterer, sitting alone on a high branch. 

 For some distance the lower vegetation was so dense 

 that the road runs under an arcade of foliage, the 

 branches having been cut away only sufficiently to 

 admit of the passage of a small canoe. These thickets 

 are formed chiefly of Bamboos, whose slender foliage 

 and curving stems arrange themselves in elegant, 

 feathery bowers : but other social plants, — slender 

 green climbers with tendrils so eager in aspiring to grasp 

 the higher boughs that they seem to be endowed almost 

 with animal energy, and certain low trees having large 

 elegantly- veined leaves, contribute also to the jungly 

 masses. Occasionally we came upon an uprooted tree 

 lying across the path, its voluminous crown still held up 

 by thick cables of sipo, connecting it with standing 

 trees : a wide circuit had to be made in these cases, and 

 it was sometimes difficult to find the right path again. 



