THE TROGON. 105 



sale. The trees I have just mentioned are very 

 lofty ; but here and there in these deep forests 

 you meet with giants. A mighty trunk will tower 

 up, of a size and thickness that can scarcely be 

 believed. This giant trunk takes up a vast space 

 of ground. It will be sixty feet in circumference, 

 and a hundred feet in height. 



Like a vast dome, its mighty branches stretch 

 themselves abroad, the dome of some cathedral 

 built by the hand of Nature. 



Silence reigns at times in the forest depths, a 

 silence that becomes oppressive. There is no 

 note of bird or of insect, and the feeling is of utter 

 solitude and isolation. But the forest sounds are 

 only suspended ; they have not ceased. Presently 

 a wild yell or scream will startle the forest echoes. 

 A smaller animal has fallen a prey to a larger one, 

 and is uttering its death-cry; or there will be a 

 crash that resounds far and wide with a deafen- 

 ing noise. Some mighty bough, long since de- 

 cayed, or some tree, has fallen prone on the earth. 

 At intervals, the howling monkeys will burst out 

 with a chorus of unearthly and discordant noises 



