RAVINES IN THE FOREST. 189 



the Niam-Niam country, a part of Central Africa, till 

 then almost entirely unknown, where these wonderful 

 arcades, or " galleries, " of the most striking and 

 beautiful character, were often met with 



"trees with immense stems, surpassing all we had elsewhere 

 seen," (he tells us) "here stood in masses. At intervals, some 

 less towering forms rose beneath their shade and in the 

 inmost recesses of these woods one would come upon avenues 

 like the colonnades of an Egyptian temple, veiled in the leafy 

 shade of the triple roof above. Seen from without, they 

 appeared impenetrable forests, but within they opened into 

 aisles and corridors, which were musical with many a murmur- 

 ing fountain." * 



In Ceylon, however, and in most other countries 

 situated within the equatorial zone, similar examples 

 of these extraordinary natural galleries are of frequent 

 occurrence the interior of this beautiful island being 

 a succession of mountains and ravines, with precipitous . 

 sides, at the bottom of each of which a crystal brook 

 may generally be heard dashing along its rocky bed. 



One might go on, almost to infinity, in the hopeless 

 effort to recount even a tithe of the wonders and 

 beauties of these forest scenes, which once seen can 

 never be forgotten; after long years have passed, the 

 memory of them never fails to rise up again, from time 

 to time, in the mind's eye, as among the scenes which 

 we feel to be most wonderful, and best worth seeing 

 in the experiences of a lifetime. In the common course 

 of Nature, much that we think well worth seeing, at 

 the moment, fades out of recollection entirely, or else 

 when looked back upon, appears tedious, or common- 



* The Heart of Africa, by Dr. Georg Schweinfurth, 2nd Edit., 

 1874, Vol. i., p. 506. 



