1881.] Late Explorations in the Gaboon., 451 
It is quite beyond my power to fitly describe the forests of the 
interior, for here stand in a motley mixture the Scitamnacee, the 
Malvacez, the Orchidaceze, Euphorbiacee, the Aracex, the Bom- 
bacez, etc. To disentangle this confusion would require a first 
rate botanist. No writer can give a just description of a primitive 
tropical forest; it is too grand and diversified; but with all its 
exterior splendor and beauty, it is a deceitful and dangerous 
thing. Woe to the inexperienced man who essays to penetrate 
into its interior; he soon becomes involved in a chaos of roots, 
of interlacing lianas, of fallen trunks, covered with a tangled 
growth of thorny underbrush, all growing from a dank and 
swampy soil. Here he breathes a stagnant, musty, greenhouse 
air, which depresses the spirits and deadens the energies. Added 
to this there isa deep gloomy silence which broods over this 
place of most luxuriant growth and rapid decay. Although 
these mysterious shadows hide an active and varied animal life, 
the ear is seldom struck by a sound of any kind. Only now and 
then the falling of a fruit or a dry branch breaks the oppressive 
stillness. Early in the morning and in the short evening twilight 
of the tropics, some birds are heard to herald the advent or 
departure of the day. Such a forest is a subject of unending 
study, and only he whom nature has endowed with peculiar 
tastes and acute senses can, with use and experience, become 
familiar with its varied constituents, its changing phases and its 
silent language. Woe to the novice who without guide wanders 
into its recesses, where death lurks for him. In most cases he is 
soon hopelessly lost, and when weary and despairing he throws 
himself on the ground to rest, swarms of ants and other insects 
soon sting him into movement again. Almost no wholesome 
food is attainable in these forest depths, and should the traveler 
me die of starvation, or fall a victim to violent, acute fever, the 
Poisonous atmosphere, slowly acting on the system, paralyzes the 
digestion, corrupts the blood, and produces irritating eruptions of 
the skin, and frequently malignant ulcers. Such is the primitive 
forest on the alluvial bottoms of the rivers of tropical Africa. It 
has been represented as a paradise, and poetical descriptions, 
drawn from the imagination, have inspired in many, a longing de- 
Sire to penetrate their mysteries. One must, however, do as I 
~ done, wander lost and alone for days together, enduring ter- 
bia: as ing and constant fear of death before he can form for 
a true image of the real tropical primeval forest. 
# 
