274 CROSSING MALARIOUS TRACTS. 



imperfect, and the best authorities are often at variance 

 with each other about them. 



As regards the crossing of malarious districts, it is 

 prudent, in all cases whenever such an arrangement 

 may be possible, to cross them during the day, and 

 on no account to encamp in them at night. If, however, 

 a night must be passed there the men should be con- 

 fined as much as possible to their tents. They should 

 also be given considerable doses of quinine as a pro- 

 phylactic, and hot strong coffee to be taken immediately 

 after sundown. Very small fires made in, or at the 

 door of the tents is another useful precaution, and 

 large fires to windward of the encampment kept burn- 

 ing all night when practicable, afford further protection. 

 The value of mosquito-curtains at these times is also 

 a matter of ascertained fact. 



We must now proceed to give some account of 

 the giant, or arborescent grasses, as they are 

 called, which form so prominent a feature of jungle 

 vegetation. 



The first and largest of this class of plants are of 

 course the bamboos ; we have, however, given short de- 

 scriptions of the most remarkable of these in our section 

 on the equatorial zone, and shall therefore confine 

 ourselves at present to saying that though the jungle 

 bamboos may be generally less gigantic than the great 

 representatives of their class already alluded to, they 

 form nevertheless a leading feature of the dense, or 

 swampy, jungle region. They are of all sorts and sizes, 

 from the common yellow bamboo (Bambusa Vulgaris] 

 which often grows to a great length, down to small 

 reed-like species, not thicker than the stem of a tobacco 

 pipe (the Bambusa Me take, a Japanese variety which 



