36 
WONDERS OF THE TROPICAL FORESTS. 
1823 a tree vrfxs fell eel wliicli weiglied more than seven 
tons, and at Liverpool was sold for 525. The expense 
of sawing amounted to £ySO more: so that the wood of 
this single tree, before passing into the hands of the 
cabmet-raaker, was worth as mnch as a moderately sized 
farm. 
"Heedless and bankrupt in all curiosity must he be," 
says WatertoUj " who can jonrney throu<^h the forests of 
Gniana without stopping to take a view of the towering 
Mora. Its topmost branch, when naked with age, or 
dried by accident, is the favourite resort of the toucan, 
ilany a time has this singular bird folt the shot faintly 
strike him from the gnn of the fowler beneath, and owed 
his life to tlio distance betwixt them. The wild lig-tree, 
as large as a common English apple-tree, often re^irs itself 
from one of the thick branches at the top of the mora ; 
and when its fruit is ripej to it the birds resort for 
nourishment. It was to an indigested seed passing 
through the Ijody of this bird, which had perched on the 
mora, that the fig-treo first owed its elevated station there. 
The sap of the mora raised it into full bearing ; but now, 
in its turn, it is doomed to contribute a portion of its own 
sap and juices towards the growth of different species of 
vines, the seeds of whick also the birds deposited on its 
branches. These soon vegetate and bear fruit in great 
quantities ; so, what with their usurpation of the resources 
of the fig-tree, and the fig-tree of the mora, the mora, 
unable to support a charge which Nature never intended 
it should, languishes and dies under its burden; and then 
the fig-tree and its usurping progeny of vines, receiving 
no more succour from tkeir late foster-parent, droop and 
perish in their turn." 
Our stateliest oaks would look like pygmies near this 
"chieftain of the forests," who raises his dark green 
cupola over all the neighlxraring trees, and deceives the 
traveller, who fancies that a verdant hill is rising before 
liim. Its wood is much firmer than that of the fir, and is, 
