232 TlMEHRl. 
forest, support a good deal of epiphytal and parasitic life, 
chiefly, however, of a hardy sunbearing character. 
At all times of the year except the latter part of the 
long dry season, water trickles over the surface gen- 
erally. This and the organic matter gathered by its 
wash, with the natural decay in the localities affected, 
held in the hollow and lower parts of the ground, form 
a soft spongy, or more aqueous, soil, into which one 
sinks in walking, leaving open foot-holes that fill 
instantly with water. Sphagnum and other Mosses, 
Lindsays, different species of Paepalanthus, Abolbodas, 
Stegolepis, Lycopodiums &c. are its principal occupants. 
Evidence presents itself unmistakably that the sa- 
vannah has been larger — probably much larger — in the 
past than it is at present. The nature of the growth 
which borders the forest demonstrates this. The forest, 
too, contains odd bits of savannah, which by reason 
of their barren soil-less condition have not yet become 
grown over. Its reduction is no doubt checked by 
the conflagations to which the Indians frequently sub- 
ject it. A year or two prior to my visit, a great fire 
appears to have devastated all the lower part, leaving 
the evidence of charred stumps, and a thick layer 
of ashes as far as it extended. Within the savan- 
nah, the outline of the small trees and shrubs which 
border the forest is very irregular, and this more 
particularly along the upper side, where the dense 
thicket forms diffused reaches into the savannah, with 
deep-bay or ford-like openings gravel-covered and very 
sparsely clothed with any kind of herbage between them. 
The elevation of the region is from 1200 to 1300 
