Chap. IY. 
A WATER-PATH. 
231 
dell contracts gradually towards the head of the rivulet, 
and the forest then becomes denser ; the water-path 
also diminishes in width, and becomes more winding, on 
account of the closer growth of the trees. The boughs 
of some are stretched forth at no great height over one's 
head, and are seen to be loaded with epiphytes ; one 
orchid I noticed particularly, on account of its bright 
yellow flowers growing at the end of flower-stems 
several feet long. Some of the trunks, especially those 
of palms, close beneath their crowns, were clothed with 
a thick mass of glossy shield-shaped Pothos plants, 
mingled with ferns. Arrived at this part we were, in fact, 
in the heart of the virgin forest. We heard no noises 
of animals in the trees, and saw only one bird, the 
sky-blue chatterer, sitting alone on a high branch. 
For some distance the lower vegetation was so dense 
that the road runs under an arcade of foliage, the 
branches having been cut away only sufficiently to 
admit of the passage of a small canoe. These thickets 
are formed chiefly of Bamboos, whose slender foliage 
and curving stems arrange themselves in elegant, 
feathery bowers : but other social plants, — slender 
green climbers with tendrils so eager in aspiring to grasp 
the higher boughs that they seem to be endowed almost 
with animal energy, and certain low trees having large 
elegantly-veined leaves, contribute also to the jungly 
masses. Occasionally we came upon an uprooted tree 
lying across the path, its voluminous crown still held up 
by thick cables of sipo, connecting it with standing 
trees : a wide circuit had to be made in these cases, and 
it was sometimes difficult to find the right path again. 
