ABSENCE OF THORNS IN FOREST. 373 



wind up from left to right, on the other bank from right to left. 

 I imagined this was owing to the sun being at one season of 

 the year on their north and at another on their south. But 

 on the Leeambye I observed creepers winding up on opposite 

 sides of the same reed, and making a figure like the lacings of a 

 sandal. 



In passing through these narrow paths I had an opportunity of 

 observing the peculiarities of my ox " Sinbad." He had a softer 

 back than the others, but a much more intractable temper. His 

 horns were bent downward and hung loosely, so he could do no 

 harm with them ; but as we wended our way slowly along the 

 narrow path, he would suddenly dart aside. A string tied to a 

 stick put through the cartilage of the nose serves instead of a bri- 

 dle : if you jerk this back, it makes him run faster on ; if you 

 pull it to one side, he allows the nose and head to go, but keeps 

 the opposite eye directed to the forbidden spot, and goes in spite 

 of you. The only way he can be brought to a stand is by a 

 stroke with a wand across the nose. When Sinbad ran in below 

 a climber stretched over the path so low that I could not stoop 

 under it, I was dragged off and came down on the crown of my 

 head ; and he never allowed an opportunity of the kind to pass 

 without trying to inflict a kick, as if I neither had nor deserved 

 his love. 



A remarkable peculiarity in the forests of this country is the 

 absence of thorns : there are but two exceptions ; one a tree 

 bearing a species of nux vomica, and a small shrub very like the 

 plant of the sarsaparilla, bearing, in addition to its hooked thorns, 

 bunches of yellow berries. The thornlessness of the vegetation 

 is especially noticeable to those who have been in the south, 

 where there is so great a variety of thom-bearing plants and trees. 

 We have thorns of every size and shape ; thorns straight, thin 

 and long, short and thick, or hooked, and so strong as to be able 

 to cut even leather like a knife. Seed-vessels are scattered every 

 where by these appendages. One lies flat as a shilling with two 

 thorns in its centre, ready to run into the foot of any animal that 

 treads upon it, and stick there for days together. Another (the 

 Uhcaria jprocumbens, or Grapple -plant) has so many hooked 

 thorns as to cling most tenaciously to any animal to which it may 

 become attached ; when it happens to lay hold of the mouth of 



