182 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 



so absolutely silent and still before., break at 

 once into noise and movement. Flocks of 

 toucans flutter and scream on the tops of the 

 highest forest trees hopelessly out of shot, the 

 ear is pierced by the strange wild screeches of 

 a little band of macaws which fly past you 

 like the wrapped-up ghosts of the birds on 

 some gaudy old brocade." l 



Mr. Darwin tells us that nothing can be 

 better than the description of tropical forests 

 given by Bates. 



" The leafy crowns of the trees, scarcely 

 two of which could be seen together of the 

 same kind, were now far away above us, in 

 another world as it were. We could only see 

 at times, where there was a break above, the 

 tracery of the foliage against the clear blue 

 sky. Sometimes the leaves were palmate, or 

 of the shape of large outstretched hands ; at 

 others finely cut or feathery like the leaves of 

 Mimosse. Below, the tree trunks were every- 

 where linked together by sipos ; the woody 

 flexible stems of climbing and creeping trees, 

 whose foliage is far away above, mingled with 



1 Thomson, Voyage of the Challenger. 



