THE BUSHROPE 121 



branch to branch ; others, descending from on high, take root 

 as soon as their extremity touches the ground, and appear like 

 shrouds and stays supporting the mainmast of a line-of-battle 

 ship ; while others send out parallel, oblique, horizontal, and 

 perpendicular shoots in all directions. Frequently trees above 

 a hundred feet high, uprooted by the storm, are stopped in 

 their fall by these amazing cables of Nature, and are thus 

 enabled to send forth vigorous shooj:s, though far from their 

 perpendicular, with their trunks inclined to every degi'ee from 

 the meridian to the horizon. 



Their heads remain firmly supported by the bushropes; 

 many of their roots soon refix themselves in the earth, and fre- 

 quently a strong shoot will sprout out perpendicularly from near 

 the root of the reclined trunk, and in time become a stately 

 tree. 



No European is able to penetrate the intricate network of a 

 forest thus matted together: astonished and despairing he 

 stands before the dense cordage that impedes his path, and, 

 should he attempt to force his way through the maze, the 

 strong thorns and hooks with which the tropical creepers are 

 generally armed would soon make him repent of his bold- 

 ness. Even the Brazilian planter never thinks of entering 

 the forest without a large knife, or without being accompanied 

 by slaves, who, with heavy scythe-like axes attached to long 

 poles, clear the way by severing the otherwise impenetrable 

 cordage. 



But if the naturalist vents dire imprecations on the creepers, 

 which render forest exploration so difficult, they are the delight 

 of the monkeys and tiger-cats that climb them with astonishing 

 celerity. The rapid ascension of the highest trees, or even the 

 passage over streams, is rendered easy by their means to whole 

 herds. No less pliable than tough, the lianas of the western 

 hemisphere are used by the Brazilians as cordage to fasten 

 the rafters of their houses, in the same manner as the equally 

 flexible ratans are employed throughout the East Indian 

 world. 



The enormous climbing trees, that stifle the life of the mighti- 

 est giants of the forest, offer a still more wonderful spectacle. 

 At first, these emblems of ingratitude grow straight upwards like 

 any feeble shrub, but as soon as they have found a support in 



