JUNGLE LIFE AT AREMU. 301 



The trees on this and all later days constantly drew from 

 us exclamations of delight. They were magnificent, awe- 

 inspiring, and if I could think of any stronger word of appreci- 

 ation I should apply it at once to them. Their immensity 

 and apparent age made one reflect upon the transiency of 

 animal and human existence. Even the long-lived Parrots 

 and Macaws perching on their branches seemed like may- 

 flies of a day compared with these giants of the jungle, which 

 had watched century upon century pass. 



As I looked at the circle of trees bordering the clearing 

 a clearing which itself was the result of the felling of only one 

 such giant the great variety of trees was at once noticeable. 

 Near relatives brothers and sisters, or fathers and sons - 

 could not exist within each other's shadow. So it was that 

 a dozen kinds were visible from my seat. One splendid 

 fellow sent up a perfectly rounded grayish column, one 

 hundred and fifty feet or more, propped with a single great 

 fox-colored buttress, sweeping gracefully out from the weaker 

 side of the ground hold of the trunk, like the train of a court 

 lady's dress. 



Another column was round but deeply tinted, the trunk 

 being rimmed with a succession of scallops, while in a third 

 tree known as Paddle-wood, this was carried to an extreme, 

 the trunk being little more than the point of juncture of a 

 dozen thin blade-like sheets of wood. The whole was of a 

 beautiful leaden-gray color. 



The moras were the biggest and tallest trees within sight, 

 and sent out huge buttresses, twenty feet in all directions 

 with space between them for a good-sized room. The im- 

 pression of security was perfect it seemed as if the strongest 

 of winds could never overcome such a reinforced structure. 



Hearing near at hand the strange cicada whirr! which we 

 have described in a previous chapter (page 23), I watched 

 for the insect and soon traced the sound to a very large 



