The Forest of the Amazons. 489 



mass of verdure is along the base of the Andes, where the 

 moisture and tempei-ature are combined in the right pro- 

 portion — such as existed, doubtless, in the carboniferous 

 age. 



The flowers are on the top. On many of the trees, not 

 a single blossom is to be found at a less height than one 

 hundred feet. The glory of the forest can be seen only 

 by sailing in a balloon over the undulating, flowery surface 

 above. There, too, in that green cloud are the insects and 

 birds and monkeys. You are in " the empty nave of the 

 cathedral, and the service is being celebrated aloft in the 

 blazing roof." In place of mosses and lichens, the trunks 

 and boughs are bearded with epiphytic orchids, ferns, til- 

 landsias, cactuses, etc., frequently forming hanging gardens 

 of great beauty. In ascending the river, the traveler, 

 even if an acute botanist, is rarely able to distinguish in- 

 dividual trees, save the Palms and certain lofty, dome- 

 shaped crowns ; for the branches are so thoroughly inter- 

 woven and so densely veiled with twiners and epiphytes, 

 that one sees little more than a green wall. He might 

 roam a hundred years in the Amazons thicket, and at 

 the end find it impossible to classify the myriad, crowded, 

 competing shapes of vegetation. The roots, even of the 

 giants, are not deep. The temperature of the interior of 

 the forest is generally lower than by the river-bank. 



Deposits In the Amazons Valley. 



