218 IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



crackle, with now and again reports like pistol- 

 shots, but, on account of the intense sunlight, see 

 but little of the flames which are running along 

 the ground and demolishing one great tuft after 

 another. At night the scene is magnificent. For 

 miles the ground glows like a furnace and the 

 flames shoot up now and then in pyramids and 

 great sheets as they spread around in a circle 

 until checked by the belt of eta palms and forest 

 trees in the far distance. When the fire has spent 

 itself, which is not for several days, the once 

 beautiful green expanse is an ugly black field 

 from which even a zephyr raises a cloud of 

 charred particles. You can now walk upon it if 

 you do not mind the choking dust which rises 

 at every footstep. All that remains of the king 

 of the swamp the mighty razor grass are 

 blackened tufts which cover the ground at 

 distances of about two feet from each other 

 with narrow channels between. If you look 

 closely you will find that the ground itself has 

 been burnt and that it has sunk for about a foot. 

 Your feet go down into it at every step, in some 

 places almost up to the knees, and you get so 

 covered with the flakes as to appear almost like 

 a chimney-sweeper. The bottom of the swamp is 

 covered with an oozy kind of peat called pegass, 

 and it was this which burnt with the furnace-like 



