4 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



tree stands clear, each giant form showing the swelling 

 roundness of its wealth of bough and leaf. Tier upon 

 tier, the trees stand thickly massed, without a break, 

 from the level of the plain to the height of the topmost 

 trees that show their heads against the sky-line. Deep, 

 dark, sombre green is the colour of this near range ; 

 here and there one may catch glimpses of lighter 

 shades, a few scattered patches perhaps of sage green 

 where some trees, after fruiting, are putting forth a 

 new flush of leaves ; possibly there may be a speck of 

 vivid red that marks a tree whose young shoots assume 

 an unusual colour. But the contrast only accentuates 

 the prevailing tone. 



Beyond these hills, which are not perhaps more 

 than a few miles away, rises a range that is clad in 

 purple. At this distance the mass of trees shows 

 through the clear atmosphere, not with the shape 

 of each individual tree, but with a uniform raised 

 and rounded roughness that covers alike mountain 

 crag and mountain ravine. 



In some places in the plains between the two ranges 

 one may perhaps see the lighter green that marks a 

 cultivated area, or a gleam of white sand where 

 alluvial tin-mines show like islands in the sea. 



Beyond the purple mountains rise other ranges, 

 and though, of course, you cannot see it, you know 

 that the forest sweeps on through wide hidden valleys 

 and wonderful places rarely trodden by man, until 

 it reappears in sight upon another range. 



The mountain-chains melt from purple to blue, and 

 as they recede the roughness of the forest covering 

 becomes a velvety pile, and then an even softer 



