JUNGLE LIFE AT AREMU. 301 



The trees on this and all later days constantly drew from 

 us exclamations of delight. They were magnificent, awe- 

 inspiring, and if I could think of any stronger word of appreci- 

 ation I should apply it at once to them. Their immensity 

 and apparent age made one reflect upon the transiency of 

 animal and human existence. Even the long-lived Parrots 

 and Macaws perching on their branches seemed lilcc may- 

 flies of a day compared with these giants of the jungle, which 

 had watched century upon century pass. 



As I looked at the circle of trees bordering the clearing — 

 a clearing which itself was the result of the felling of only one 

 such giant — the great variety of trees was at once noticeable. 

 Near relatives — brothers and sisters, or fathers and sons — 

 could not exist within each other's shadow. So it was that 

 a dozen kinds were visible from my seat. One splendid 

 fellow sent up a perfectly rounded grayish column, one 

 hundred and fifty feet or more, propped with a single great 

 fox-colored buttress, sweeping gracefully out from the weaker 

 side of the ground hold of the trunk, like the train of a court 

 lady's dress. 



Another column was round but deeply fluted, the trunk 

 being rimmed with a succession of scallops, while in a third 

 tree known as Paddle-wood, this was carried to an extreme, 

 the trunk being litde more than the point of juncture of a 

 dozen thin bladedike sheets of wood. The whole was of a 

 beautiful leaden-gray color. 



The moras were the biggest and tallest trees within sight, 

 and sent out huge buttresses, twenty feet in all directions 

 with space between them for a good-sized room. The im- 

 pression of security was perfect — it seemed as if the strongest 

 of winds could never overcome such a reinforced structure. 



Hearing near at hand the strange cicada whirr! which we 

 have described in a previous chapter (page 23), I watched 

 for the insect and soon traced the sound to a very large 



