6a 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE PRIMEYAL FORESTS OF TROPICAL AMERICA. 



Their peculiar Charms and Terrors — Disappointments and Difficulties of the Botanist 

 — The Bush-ropes — Variety of Trees and Plants — Trees with Buttresses — 

 Numberless parasites — Character of the Primitive Forest according to its Site 

 — Its Aspect during the Eainy Season — A Hurricane in the Forest — Beauty 

 of the Forest after the Eainy Season — Our Home Scenes equally beautiful — 

 !^ird Life on the rivers of Gruiana — Morning Concert — Eepose of Nature at Noon 

 — Nocturnal Voices of the Forest. 



THE peculiar cliarms of a tropical primeval forest are 

 enhanced by the mystery of its impenetrable thickets ; for 

 however grand its lofty vaults, or lovely its ever-changing forms 

 of leaf or blossom, fancv paints scenes still more beautiful beyond, 

 where the eye cannot penetrate, and where, as yet, no wanderer 

 has ever strayed. But imagination also peoples the forest with 

 peculiar terrors ; for man feels himself here surrounded by an 

 alien, or even hostile, nature : the solitude and silence of the 

 woods weigh heavily on his mind ; in every rustling of the 

 falling leaves a venomous snake seems ready to dart forth ; and 

 who knows what ravenous animal may not be lurking in the dense 

 underwood that skirts the tangled path ? 



In Europe there is no room for such feelings ; for in our part 

 )f the world there are no woods that may not be visited, even 

 In their deepest recesses : no thorny bush-ropes stretch their 

 intricate cordage before the wanderer; no masses of matted 

 3hrubs block up his way. But it is very different in the bound- 

 less forests of tropical America. Here the jaguar sometimes 

 loses himself in such impenetrable thickets that, unable to hunt 

 ipon the ground, he lives for a long time on the trees, a terror 

 to the monkeys ; here the padres of the mission-stations, which 

 are not many miles apart in a direct line, often require more 



