178 PATHS IN THE AMAZONIAN FOREST. 



" We find " (he says) " a path like a tunnel ; thick branches 

 meet overhead, and almost conceal the entrance. The air 

 strikes cool in our faces, and coming in out of the glare we 

 can hardly see at first, so dark is it. You are aware of a 

 maze of trunks, a web confusing to the eye and mind. There 

 are tree trunks and a multitude of vine stems. Near the 

 ground there are not many leaves, but overhead the boughs 

 are woven thick like a mat. You can see the blue sky only 

 in little patches ; stray beams reach the ground sometimes ; 

 but all around there is only the solemn diffuse light." * 

 " It is only " (he continues) " after you have spent days and 

 weeks here, that you can reason on what you see. You feel 

 insignificant, even more than on the ocean; at sea there is 

 always the horizon, and a definite boundary to vision ; alone 

 in the forest, your insignificance is forced upon you: you 

 gaze through the net-work of leaves and tree trunks, until 

 the vision is lost, you know not where. You know that you 

 have only passed the borders of this infinity, where you could 

 go on for weeks, months, and never reach the end. You 

 are alone utterly: an army of men could not find you; your 

 dearest friend, your most hated foe, could not track you; 

 the vultures could not find your body, if you died here; you 

 could not find your way out, but by the path you came over, 

 or the noted direction; and very few men will care to go 

 into the forest without companions." f 



In fact it is obvious that it would be madness to 

 attempt to do so, unless accompanied by trustworthy 

 native guides, or someone skilled in local woodcraft. 

 Even in the far more open and less confusing mazes 

 of the North American forests, the instances of persons 

 who have from time to time lost their lives, by fool- 

 ishly straying into the w r oods alone, are common; but 



* Brazil, the Amazon and the Coast, by Herbert H. Smith, 1880, 

 pp. 179180. 



f Ibid., pp. 185186. 



