An Impression op the Guiana Wilderness 377 



Photo from Mrs Harriet Chalmers Adams 



On the Banks of the Essequibo, British Guiana 



almost impenetrable maze, the e3'e that is 

 on the exterior has difficulty in finding 

 points of rest or repose. But little sun- 

 light penetrates into the recesses of the 

 interior, and what there is of it comes 

 out in scattered flecks of brilliantly re- 

 •flected light and not as sunlit areas. 



In its botanical relations, the forest 

 ■does not look particularly tropical, if by 

 tropical we mean an aspect of vegetation 

 which is dominated by types that one 

 habitually associates with the lower 

 climes and whose general physiognomy 

 ■differs from the types of temperate re- 

 gions. It is true that the eye fails to note 

 the familiar forms of the oak, the maple, 



beech, birch, or poplar; but the general 

 contour of tropical foliage, especially 

 where it appears lost in mass, is not very 

 different from that of these trees or of 

 trees that in one form or another make 

 up the bulk of the north woods. Except 

 where clumps of palms stand out in par- 

 ticular relief, the trees of the South 

 American forest hrve, apart from exceed- 

 ing luxuriance and magnitude of dimen- 

 sions, so nearly the characteristics in 

 foliage of the trees of our own region 

 that the traveler could easily misinter- 

 pret the landscape of which they formed 

 a part. Even where palms are present, 

 they generally lose their crowns in the 



