£02 DISCOVERIES OF THE FRENCH. 
feet ; which made the diameter nearly twenty-two. 
From this trunk, several branches extended hori- 
zontally, till the extremities touched the ground ; 
and each of these branches being equal to one of 
our largest trees, the whole calabash composed a 
species of forest within itself. He afterwards saw 
a calabash of seventy-four feet, and another of se- 
venty-seven feet in circumference, so that it is un- 
doubtedly by much the largest tree in the world. 
About this time the rainy season came on, and 
our author had an opportunity, for the first time, 
of viewing its stupendous action in a tropical cli- 
mate. He was at some distance in the fields 
when the storm began. The attendant negroes, 
on perceiving it, instantly threw off their clothes, 
and plunged into the nearest river ; conceiving it 
more eligible to be bathed in its waters, than in 
those which streamed from above. This plan not 
according with our traveller's ideas of comfort, he 
ran under cover of a neighbouring calabash tree. 
The rain poured down, as if heaven and earth were 
mingling together ; but for some minutes he re- 
mained as completely sheltered as if he had been 
under a house. Soon, however, the leaves being 
soaked, the openings in the branches became 
the beds of so many torrents, which discharged 
themselves upon him, and he was forced to fly for 
refuge into the open fields. 
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