xviii] THE JOURNEY TO THE AMAZON 287 



even surpassed my expectations of them. The first was the 

 virgin forest, everywhere grand, often beautiful and even sub- 

 lime. Its wonderful variety with a more general uniformity 

 never palled. Standing under one of its great buttressed 

 trees — itself a marvel of nature — and looking carefully around, 

 noting the various columnar trunks rising like lofty pillars, 

 one soon perceives that hardly two of these are alike. The 

 shape of the trunks, their colour and texture, the nature of 

 their bark, their mode of branching and the character of the 

 foliage far overhead, or of the fruits or flowers lying on the 

 ground, have an individuality which shows that they are all 

 distinct species differing from one another as our oak, elm, 

 beech, ash, lime, and sycamore differ. This extraordinary 

 variety of the species is a general though not universal 

 characteristic of tropical forests, but seems to be nowhere so 

 marked a feature as in the great forest regions which encircle 

 the globe for a few degrees on each side of the equator. An 

 equatorial forest is a kind of natural arboretum where speci- 

 mens of an immense number of species are brought together 

 by nature. The western half of the island of Java affords an 

 example of such a forest-region which has been well explored, 

 botanically ; and although almost all the fertile plains have 

 been cleared for cultivation, and the forests cover only a 

 small proportion of the country, the number of distinct 

 species of forest-trees is said to be over fifteen hundred. 

 Now the whole island is only about as large as Ireland, and 

 has a population of over twenty millions ; and as the eastern 

 half of the island has a much drier climate, where there are 

 forests of teak and much more open country, it is certain 

 that this enormous variety of species is found in a wonder- 

 fully small area, probably little larger than Wales. I have 

 no doubt that the forests of the Amazon valley are equally 

 rich, while there are not improbably certain portions of their 

 vast extent which are still richer. 



The second feature, that I can never think of without 

 delight, is the wonderful variety and exquisite beauty of the 

 butterflies and birds, a variety and charm which grow upon 

 one month after month and year after year, as ever new and 



