34 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



heaviest timber, has a singular appearance in the 

 forests of Demerara. Sometimes you see it nearly 

 as thick as a man's body, twisted like a corkscrew 

 round the tallest trees, and rearing its head high 

 above their tops. At other times three or four of 

 them, like strands in a cable, join tree and tree and 

 branch and branch together. Others, descending 

 from on high, take root as soon as their extremity 

 touches the ground, and appear like shrouds and 

 stays supporting the mainmast of a line-of-battle 

 ship; while others, sending out parallel, oblique, 

 horizontal, and perpendicular shoots in all direc- 

 tions, put you in mind of what travellers call a 

 matted forest. Oftentimes a tree, above a hundred 

 feet high, uprooted by the whirlwind, is stopped in 

 its fall by these amazing cables of nature; and 

 hence it is that you account for the phenomenon of 

 seeing trees not only vegetating, but sending forth 

 vigorous shoots, though far from their perpendic- 

 ular, and their trunks inclined to every degree 

 from the meridian to the horizon. 



Their heads remain firmly supported by the 

 bush-rope; many of their roots soon refix them- 

 selves in the earth, and frequently a strong shoot 

 will sprout out perpendicularly from near the 

 root of the reclined trunk, and in time become a 

 fine tree. No grass grows under the trees; and 

 few weeds, except in the swamps. 



The high grounds are pretty clear of under- 

 wood, and with a cuilass to sever the small bush- 

 ropes, it is not difficult walking among the trees. 



The soil, chiefly formed by the fallen leaves and 

 decayed trees, is very rich and fertile in the 

 valleys. On the hills, it is little better than sand. 



