THE WILDERNESS 33 



All through the heat of the day silence is 

 the most memorable quality of the wilderness, 

 jungle, or desert, for only morning and even- 

 ing, or in the time of darkness, do the beasts 

 and birds make themselves heard. When the 

 sun burns overhead in the pitiless sky, all 

 Nature is silent, too exhausted to move. In 

 early morning, it is true, the jungle is alive 

 with bird-voices, and as darkness falls swiftly 

 on the scene, with none of the lure of our 

 northern twilight, jackals bark plaintively in 

 the foothills, and a sudden scream of pain 

 stabs the gloom as some tiger or leopard comes 

 by its own. 



The jungle is less perilous than some people 

 imagine. Beasts of prey lurk in it, no doubt, but, 

 so he be well gaitered against sudden snakes, 

 the European may walk there as safe as in an 

 English wood. People at home find it hard 

 to realise the lack of adventure. Those who 

 write of their experiences are compelled, if 

 they would hold the reader's interest, to choose 

 the days on which something happened. The 

 other days, with nothing to distinguish one 

 from another, are left out of the reckoning and 

 are as if they had not been. It is as if we were 

 to recall only the battles in a country's past and 

 ignore the interludes of peace. 



Darkness is another feature of the forest 

 which must be known to be appreciated. Even 



