THE GREAT JUNGLE COUNTRY. 269 



admixture of deciduous trees nevertheless shows that 

 this region is outside the limits of constant rains. These 

 great forests are full of the most valuable timber, and 

 contain many of the choicest productions of the tropics - 

 a good number of which are doubtless still unknown, 

 for the labour of exploring such places is immense, 

 even when they are sufficiently open and free from 

 malaria to warrant men of science in undertaking this 

 difficult task. 



Leaving therefore the heavy forests of the Bush 

 Country we pass on to survey its characteristic fea- 

 tures as " The Great Jungle Country. " 



The word "Jungle" (as the Hindi form of it " Jungli " 

 imports) consists of land that is "wild, uncultivated, 

 and useless,"* covered generally with a growth of 

 dwarf trees, bamboos, and other arborescent grasses, 

 but dotted over here and there with some trees of nobler 

 growth. There are large areas of this sort of country 

 consisting of intensely thick scrub, not exceeding from 

 fifteen to twenty feet in height, intermixed with thorny 

 creepers and other prickly plants, which render many 

 parts of it quite impassable without the free use of the 

 axe and slashing hook, except in places where heavy wild 

 animals or the jungle people have beaten narrow paths 

 through the thicket. There are, however, other tracts 

 which consist entirely of giant grasses. Dr. Schwein- 

 furth, for instance, describes vast districts on the elevated 

 table lands of Central Africa, which are covered with this 

 " grass forest," as he calls it. f In India also, there 

 are considerable tracts of just such grass jungle. Staff 



* The Cyclopedia of India, by Surgeon- General Edward Balfour, 

 3rd edit. 1885, Vol. ii, p. 454. 



f The Heart of Africa, by Dr. Georg Schweinfurth. 



