NIGHT IX THE FORESTS. 397 



themselves before each succeeding morn ; with the sun in its course 

 proceeding mid- way across the sky, and the daily temperature the 

 same within two or three degrees throughout the year, how grand 

 in its perfect equilibrium and simplicity is the march of Nature under 

 the equator!" 



Now night comes on, not, as in temperate climes, with a hush and 

 a silence that are almost breathless, but with a thousand strange and 

 formidable sounds. In Asia, in Africa, in America, as well as in the 

 great islands of the Pacific Ocean, the forests and the savannahs 

 re-echo all night with discordant cries. The branches are torn down 

 with a crash as the beasts of prey sweep past, and earth resounds 

 beneath their headlong steps. It is no longer the gay, fresh move- 

 ment of happy life which in the golden noon of day converts the 

 forest into a veritable Eden; it is the rush to and fro of scattered 

 animals, pressed by hunger and thirst, either in flight or pursuit ; it 

 is the roar of rage or the wail of agony ; it is, in a word, the mele'e 

 of sharpened appetites; it is the " Witches' Sabbath" of the savage 

 world, at which no European, however hardened by the perils of an 

 adventurous career, can be present for the first time without experi- 

 encing a deep emotion of melancholy and apprehension. 



CHAPTER IL 



VEGETABLE LIFE IX THE FORESTS OF THE OLD WORLD. 



I DO not think that in all Europe, nor, indeed, in the entire Temperate 

 Zone of the Old World, exists such an agglomeration of plants and 

 trees as may merit the appellation of " primeval" or " virgin forest." 

 At all events, this forest, if it really exists, will assuredly be composed 

 of the very trees which we see every day in our own woods, our 

 fields, our parks, and even in our towns, and which have long ceased 



