6 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



width of the valley that had been strangely invisible 

 although so close. But as soon as the cloud is past 

 and gone, the trees on both sides of the ravine seem 

 to leap together ; and, though you now know exactly 

 where to look, waving branches and woven leaves 

 defy your efforts to say where the entrance is. You 

 then wonder how many similar places are hidden 

 around you, and picture to yourself the great sea 

 cloud hemmed in by the sides of the ravine and 

 still swimming further landward. 



There is another time when you may have a revela- 

 tion. A few minutes after sunset the westward facing 

 mountains blaze with the refulgent glory of an after- 

 glow. A rosy light probes the secrets that the forest 

 hides from the noonday sun the grandeur of wide 

 valleys that wind an intricate way into the inmost 

 heart of the mountains ; the mystery of little deeply- 

 shaded tributaries that fall into them on either side ; 

 the vastness of untrodden ravines and gorges; the 

 majesty of unscaleable precipices ; the terror of long 

 straight scars that tell of landslides where trees and 

 soil and rock have slipped in hideous disaster, leav- 

 ing a wound that has cut to the very bone. For a 

 moment all is revealed the mantle of the forest does 

 not avail against this searching light, and you may 

 well think that it is in the sweet exposure that the 

 mountains blush. 



But come down from the mountain peak, and walk 

 alone along a forest path. Though it is midday it is 

 very dark and very sombre. The sun cannot pierce 

 the dense foliage of the branches of the giant trees, 

 and so heavily do shadows lie upon shadows that the 



