6 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



like shrouds and stays supporting the mainmast of a 

 line-of-battle ship ; while others, sending out parallel, 

 oblique, horizontal, and perpendicular shoots in all 

 directions, put you in mind of what travellers call a 

 matted forest. Oftentimes a tree, above a hundred feet 

 high, uprooted by the whirlwind, is stopped in its fall 

 by these amazing cables of nature ; and hence it is 

 that you account for the phenomenon of seeing trees, 

 not only vegetating, but sending forth vigorous shoots, 

 though far from their perpendicular, and their trunks 

 inclined to every degree from the meridian to the 

 horizon. 



Their heads remain firmly supported by the bush- 

 rope ; many of their roots soon refix themselves in the 

 earth, and frequently a strong shoot will sprout out per- 

 pendicularly from near the root of the reclined trunk, 

 and in time become a fine tree. No grass grows under 

 the trees, and few weeds, except in the swamps. 



The high grounds are pretty clear of underwood, and, 

 with a cutlass to sever the small bush-ropes, it is not 

 difficult walking among the trees. 



The soil, chiefly formed by the fallen leaves and 



decayed trees, is very rich and fertile in the 



, valleys. On the hills, it is little better than 



sand. The rains seem to have carried away, and swept 



into the valleys, every particle which nature intended 



to have formed a mould. 



Four-footed Four-footed animals are scarce, consider- 

 ing how very thinly these forests are in- 

 habited by men. 



Several species of the animal commonly called tiger, 

 though, in reality, it approaches nearer to the leopard, 

 are found here ; and two of their diminutives, named 



