JUNGLE LIFE 83 



iiig the rains, my tlu)ii<^lit.s of birds and otlier vertc'})rates 

 were momentarily erased by the sudden si^ht of fairy castles, 

 laces, sunshades, pikes, spears, pagodas, spirals and scores 

 of other forms of fungi for which no simile existed. Here, 

 too, grew the yariegated caladiums and other ground plants, 

 and here were those wonderful l)uttresses which enable the 

 trees to reach such stupendous heights with such slight girth 

 of trunk. 



In the low and mid-heights was found the soft mist of 

 green foliage of the jungle undergrowth, springing from 

 thin, twig-like branches and supported on maryelously slen- 

 der stems. The chief zone of this undergrowth was between 

 fiye and seyenty feet, aboye which the tall, straight trunks 

 of the larger trees were dominant, with no trace of branch 

 or leaf until the luxin*iant crowns were reached. There all 

 the pent-up yegetatiye energy, all the suppressed functions 

 other than mere altitude of barren trunks were released in 

 a dense outburst of leayes, branches, flowers and fruit. 



As one walked through the jungle, tinamou and par- 

 tridges sprang up and whirred away, agoutis and armadillos 

 scuttled from their feeding grounds. Tracks of deer, tapir, 

 paca and yarious cats showed the moyements of these ani- 

 mals during the preceding night. Grisons and, more rarely, 

 small jungle mice and rats were obseryed. On fallen leayes 

 tiny jungle frogs shrilled, and giant marine toads liyed their 

 sluggish life. Salamanders and serpents were rare. Once 

 in a while a bushmaster, fer-de-lance, or some harmless snake 

 was seen coiled or slowly slipping oyer the leayes. Now and 

 then a big yellow turtle ploughed heayily along. All the 

 greater and lesser fry of the underworld whose delight was 

 in decayed wood, who called the mold home, were here — 

 strange grubs and beetles, scorpions, myriapods, peripatus 

 and all wingless, creeping things. 



When I raised my eyes to the leyel of the low jimgle — 

 to my own height — an entirely new world appeared. That 

 of two dimensions was left behind and one of three entered. 



