6o OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



rails. Beneath the cars the constant friction only dwarfs 

 the growth, and we find here miniature plants blooming, 

 fruiting, and scattering seed; plants which elsewhere reach a 

 height of five or six feet. It is an interesting case of quick 

 adaptation to unfavorable conditions. 



The vegetation presses on every inch of the track, striving 

 ever to close up the long scar through the heart of the forest, 

 and only by systematic cutting is the way kept open. The 

 advance of the jungle host is most interesting. Thirty feet 

 from the rails the growth is primeval, a dense mass of entan- 

 gled and interlaced vines, shrubs, palms, and giant trees, 

 the boles of the latter shooting up and up through the mass 

 and bursting into bloom high overhead. Nearer the track 

 we find a phalanx of green banners and the wonderfully 

 brilliant red and yellow flower stalks of the quick-growing 

 heliconias. In front are the rough scouts, the real advance- 

 guard of strong, thorny vines growing in close entanglement 

 — a living chevaux-de-frise, inconspicuous and yet offering 

 the greatest resistance. Under this shelter the larger but 

 slower-growing components of the jungle take root and 

 gather vigor, until, if not cut out with the hardest labor, 

 they soon rear their heads from their nursery of vines and 

 brambles, and the shining rails vanish from view. 



All the creatures of the forest cross and recross the track 

 freely, even in front of an approaching train. Water-fowl, 

 Sun-bitterns "-* and the weird-voiced Trumpeters "' walk up 

 and down, and flocks of Seedeaters "' drift here and there, 

 gleaning seed from between the rails. The Trumpeters were 

 a great surprise to us, as this is the first instance of their 

 being found north of the Orinoco River. One day we see 

 the leaves part, and a long, low-shouldered reddish form 

 slouches across before us, without even a glance at us, and 

 we know it for the first South American puma {Felis 

 concolor) v/hich we have seen. Another "red lion," as 



