Tropical Forests 
able mud on the path, Very often (on the coast) there 
are grey hot days when the clouds hang over it, and 
there is not even sunshine on the foliage far above his 
head. But the traveller’s nights have been disturbed by 
mosquitoes, he is very likely full of fever and in any 
case is apt to be depressed, morbid, and languid. 
One understands at once why some of the most 
degraded or lowest of the human race are only found 
in the depths of such forests. It is a fit home for 
Veddahs, pigmies of the Congo, and the savage Indians 
of South America. 
Man has not obtained the mastery over this sort of 
vegetation, Indeed their very exuberance and fertility 
make such tropical forests scarcely more valuable than 
a desert. 
The insect life is also abundant and exceedingly 
vicious. Mosquitoes, centipedes, ants, gigantic horse- 
flies whose bite produces a swelling as large as a hen’s 
egg, and the horrible “ jigger”” are characteristic of some 
of them. In Malaya there are the leeches, and in South 
America vampire-bats. 
If one could use an aeroplane and skim over the 
surface of the foliage, one would no doubt.find a vivid 
colour and plenty of birds and insects. In South 
Mexico, where one may sometimes catch sight of the 
foliage surface from some projecting rock, there are 
great patches of brilliant flowers well set off by the 
green of the leaves. Gorgeously painted butterflies 
visit them and are hunted by tree-frogs which are also 
vivid and bright in colour. Tree-snakes are trying 
to catch the frogs. There are also many brilliantly 
coloured birds of the most varied kinds.’ 
In temperate or subtropical countries all this rich 
and diverse life of flower, insect, bird, and beast is on 
or near the ground so as to be seen and appreciated, 
but in the tropical forest everything above looks black 
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