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CHAPTEK VIII. 



THE PRIMITIVE FOREST. 



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



Variety of Trees and Plants — Chara'cter 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 — Bird Life on the rivers of 



Guiana — Morning Concert — Kepose of Nature at Noon — Nocturnal Voices 

 of the Forest. 



THE peculiar charms of the tropical primitive forest are 

 enhanced by the mystery of its impenetrable thickets ; for 

 however lovely its lofty vaults and ever-changing forms of leaf 

 or blossom may be, fancy 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 sur- 

 rounded by an alien, or even hostile, nature : the solitude and 

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

 rustling of the fallen leaves a venomous snake seems ready to 

 dart forth ; and who knows what ravenous beast 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 of 

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

 their deepest recesses : no thorny bushropes stretch their intri- 

 cate cordage before the wanderer; no masses of matted shrubbery 

 block up his way. 



But it is very different in the boundless forests of tropical 

 America, through which roll the Orinoco or the Amazon, with 

 tlieir numberless tributaries. Here the jaguar sometimes loses 

 himself in such impenetrable thickets that, unable to hunt upon 

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



