90 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



In a country so extensively covered with wood as this 

 is, having every advantage that a tropical sun and the 

 richest mould, in many places, can give to vegetation, it 

 is natural to look for trees of very large dimensions ; but 

 it is rare to meet with them above six yards in circum- 

 ference. If larger have ever existed, they have fallen a 

 sacrifice either to the axe or to fire. 



If, however, they disappoint you in size, they make 

 ample amends in height. Heedless and bankrupt in all 

 curiosity must he be who can journey on without stopping 

 to take a view of the towering Mora. Its topmost branch, 

 when naked with age or dried by accident, is the favourite 

 resort of the Toucan. Many a time has this singular bird 

 felt the shot faintly strike him from the gun of the fowler 

 beneath, and owed his life to the distance betwixt them. 



The trees which form these far-extending wilds are as 

 useful as they are ornamental. It would take a volume 

 of itself to describe them. 



The Green-heart, famous for its hardness and durability; 

 the Hackea, for its toughness ; the Ducalabali, surpassing 

 mahogany ; the Ebony and Letter-wood, vying with the 

 choicest woods of the old world ; the Locust-tree, yielding 

 copal ; and the Hayawa and Olou- trees, furnishing a sweet- 

 smelling resin, are all to be met with in the forest, betwixt 

 the plantations and the rock Saba. 



Beyond this rock the country has been little explored ; 

 but it is very probable that these, and a vast collection of 

 other kinds, and possibly many new species, are scattered 

 up and down, in all directions, through the swamps, and 

 hills, and savannas of ci-devant Dutch Guiana. 



On viewing the stately trees around him the naturalist 

 will observe many of them bearing leaves, and blossoms, 

 and fruit, not their own. 



Wild Fig-tree, as large as a common English apple- 



