276 IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



are streamlets with stepping-stones from which 

 now obliterated trails once led, and these also tell 

 of a former population. 



These little footprints of past generations are, 

 after all, very insignificant, and do almost nothing 

 to alter the appearance of utter desertion. With 

 the exception of a few pictures on the rocks near 

 certain waterfalls, there are no antiquities, and 

 therefore there can be nothing of that human 

 interest so conspicuous in the old world. Yet the 

 country, as well as the people, must be very old, 

 as can be easily proved by the cultivated plants* 

 Like the food vegetables of the other hemisphere, 

 the cassava, sweet potato, maize, and capsicum are 

 never found truly wild, and show by the number of 

 their varieties that they must have been under 

 man's care and control for ages. Whether any of 

 these could exist for a length of time away from 

 his influence is very doubtful, but it is strange that 

 the same thing cannot be said of the pine-apple. 

 Here we have a fruit, obviously also domesticated, 

 which nevertheless thrives everywhere on the 

 barren sand in utter neglect. This seems to show 

 that it is possible for a cultivated plant to stand 

 alone, apart from man's care and attention, but it 

 is quite obvious that few others are possessed of 

 this capability. In most cases we should say that 



