THE ROMANCE OF RUBBER 



3 



the immensity of the mass. For, in a bird's-eye view, 

 all the features of a landscape are seen in proportion ; 

 and as we look from aloft at this country we have come 

 to visit, the outstanding feature is a wilderness which 

 Nature designed as a citadel wherein she could reign 

 supreme, and which, since the days of the Great Begin- 

 ning of all things, she has fortified against any human 

 desire to interfere with her own imagination and 

 power of achievement. 



We drop to earth in this country, landing in the heart 

 of the forest. Now there is no trace of an outlet to be 

 seen. Surely we are prisoners — but which of us, at 

 this moment, would care to escape, even were we 

 shown a way ? In the wildest revels of dreamland we 

 have never beheld anything so luxuriously beautiful 

 as the scene of reality which now surrounds us. Multi- 

 tudes of giant trees burst the bonds of thickly tangled 

 undergrowth, only to be fettered again up to their 

 very summits, a hundred feet or more above our heads, 

 by the endless twistings and turnings of gnarled vines 

 and stout-stemmed creepers. Clinging to the trees 

 are choice orchids, weird in form and fantastic of 

 colour ; the dense undergrowth of browns and greens 

 is thickly patterned with brilliant blooms ; from the 

 rich overgrowth hang vivid-hued floral streamers and 

 festoons ; gaily plumed birds are roosting amidst 

 deepest shadows ; bright blue butterflies are holding 

 carnival in odd spots, whither stray rays of the blazing 

 sun have been able to penetrate through chinks in the 

 leaf -thatched, flower-strewn vault. 



Evidently there are people living within these 

 forest confines ; for see, a tawny form is breaking 

 through the bush. Come, let us hide quickly. 



