IN THE PRIMEVAL FOREST 231 



farther back — some of them doubtless are sev- 

 eral hundred years old. The exclusively tropical 

 parts of the forests are very much older. It has 

 required much time for sufficient leaf mold to 

 accumulate to prepare the way for these fastidious 

 warriors. This could only begin after the ham- 

 mock was dense enough to repel the fires that for 

 ages crippled them. This mold is sometimes two 

 or more feet deep. The age, then, of this finished 

 forest must be reckoned not by centuries but by 

 milleniums. 



But an enemy has arrived, against which the 

 hammocks have no defense, and this is civilized 

 man. The farmer tempted by their rich soil has 

 attacked them with fire and axe in order to build 

 his home and raise fruit and vegetables. It has 

 required of nature centuries to perfect a hammock 

 which man completely destroys in a few weeks. 



The human is a greedy creature of abundant 

 and costly needs and he destroys, often wantonly, 

 that which nature has so generously provided. 

 The shells of the fresh- water mussel are now used 

 for the manufacture of buttons, and he dredges 

 millions of specimens too small to use and merely 

 dumps them on the shore to die. He fills the 



