282 Information about the Coffee Tree. 



ply imtil the huge things are cut completely through. Then 

 comes the din of destruction ; this upper rows of wide-spreading 

 trees totter for a moment on the broken pediments, reel to and 

 fro like drunken men, and then, with one long chorus of deep^ 

 sounding groans, they topple over on the row beneath, which, in 

 their turn, though but half cut through, stagger beneath the 

 pressure from above, and, with many a groan and heavy sigh, 

 tumble headlong with their vei'dant branches, carrying tlie like 

 destruction as they go, crashing, and splintering, and thundering 

 as they bend heavily to the earth. And so the deafening work 

 goes on, until, like a mighty tempest, the roar has reached the 

 basement of the mountain side ; and all that is left of that once 

 lordly forest is a wild steep of ruined, blighted, splintered stumps, 

 and trunks, and branches. 



The next task, and this should be begun at once, is to arrange 

 the scattered Avreck by applying the axe here and there, so as to 

 facilitate the passage of the fire when all shall be ready, which 

 it will be in about three months' time. As the rainy or planting- 

 season draws nigh, firing commences. There is not anuch skill 

 or labor wanting in this operation. The superintendent usually 

 sees the " burn" started, which is, of course, always from the 

 windward side of the dry mass. It is a brilliant and imposing 

 sight, towards evening, to watch the many jungle fires through- 

 out one of these cofiee districts, especially if you happeii to be 

 traveling tln-ough some quiet valley, and the " burns" are coming 

 ofif on the mountain slopes far above you. The effect is then very 

 magnificent, flinging, as they do, a supernatural glare over sky, 

 and cloud, and forest. And later, too, when these fires have 

 burnt out, and there remain but so many smouldering heaps of 

 red flickering ashes, you may see them peering up amidst the 

 depth of the jungle in the darkness of a thundery night, like the 

 restless winking eyes of some wild Titan denizens of the forests, 

 disturbed in tlieir mountain solitudes. 



These fires sweep away all the small branches and some of tlie 

 larger, but not all, the huge trunks being only badly singed and 

 blackened. So soon as the embers are cold, a party of " loppers" 

 are placed on the ground with light axes and " catties," or bill- 

 hooks, with which they trim off every remaining branch ; these 

 are folUnved by other coolies, whose duty it is to pile all the 

 lopped wood at certain intervals, where it ia left to dry for 



