Chapter W. 



The plateau is completely covered by a great forest of tree 

 heaths. In this forest tiniiiks and l^oughs are entirely smothered 

 in a thick layer of mosses which hang like waving beards from 

 every spray, cushion and englobe every knot, curl and swell 



KICnUCHU. 



around eacli twig, deform every outline and obliterate every 

 feature, till the trees are a mere mass of grotesque contortions, 

 moiisti'ous tumefactions of the discoloured, leprous growth. 

 No leaf is to ])e seen save on the verv top-most twigs, 

 yet tlic foi-est is dark owing to the dense network of trunks 

 and branches. The soil disappears altogether imder innumer- 

 able dead trunks, 1 leaped one upon another in intricate piles, 

 covered with mosses, viscous and slippery where exposed to 

 tlie air ; black, iiaked, and yet neither mildewed nor rotten 

 wliere tliey liave lain for vears and v<'ars in deep lioles. No 

 forest can be ij^rinnner and strano;er tliaii tliis. The vegetation. 



130 



