THE PRIMEVAL FORESTS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 209 



completely that we cannot see a scale of it, and accordingly cannot 

 fire a shot to any purpose. 



Still we continue striving vainly to master the wealth of impres- 

 sions, to separate one picture from another, to see any one tree from 

 the ground to its top, to distinguish the leaves of one from those of 

 another. From the stream it had been possible to distinguish some 

 of the fresh green tamarinds from the mimosas of various species 

 surrounding them, to recognize the magnificent kigelias, reminding 

 us slightly of our own elms, to delight in the palm-crowns towering 

 over the rest of the trees: here, in the depths of the forest, all the 

 individual parts are fused into an inseparable whole. All the 

 senses are claimed at once. From the leafy dome which the eye 

 attempts to penetrate is wafted the balsamic fragrance of some 

 mimosas now in bloom; and hence also there rings continually 

 in the ear a medley of the most varied sounds and notes, from the 

 guttural cries of the monkeys or the screeching of parrots, to the 

 modulated songs of birds and the buzzing of the insects flying about 

 the blossoming trees. The sense of touch is no less fully, if not 

 quite agreeably stimulated by the innumerable thorns, while that 

 of taste may regale itself with the few attainable, but more or less 

 unpalatable fruits. 



But at last we do come upon a distinct and definite picture. 

 A tree, mighty in its whole structure, gigantic even in its minor 

 branches, rises above the innumerable plants surrounding its base; 

 like a giant it presses upwards and takes possession of space for its 

 trunk and crown. It is the elephant, the pachyderm among the 

 trees, the Adansonia, the tabaldie of the natives, the baobab. We 

 stand in amazement to gaze on it; for the eye must become accus- 

 tomed to the sight before it can take in the details. Picture a tree, 

 the circumference of whose trunk, at a man's height from the 

 ground, may measure a hundred and twenty feet, whose lower 

 branches are thicker than the trunks of our largest trees; whose 

 twigs are like strong branches, and whose youngest shoots are 

 thicker than one's thumb; remember that this mighty giant of the 

 plant- world rises to a height of about one hundred and thirty feet, 

 and that its lowest branches spread out to almost sixty, and you 



(M70) 14 



