Man's Footsteps, 
before a dense growth of shrubs, and finally a few trees 
will succeed in piercing through the jungle. As they 
spread their branches over the bushes these become less 
and less rampant until the place becomes indistinguishable 
from the surrounding forest. On the sand-reefs, however, 
a very long period may elapse before any tree can 
establish itself on a clearing, and if the denuded space 
is of a great extent, ages may elapse before the traces of 
occupation are obliterated. The inhabitants of the 
upper Demerara river are still able to trace the line 
of the great forest fire that extended between it and 
the Berbice river a hundred years ago. 
Are the pine-apple and krattee wild plants ? 
They appear to flourish wherever the soil is suitable, 
but always connected with the traces of man's presence 
in some past time. It may have been centuries since the 
parent plants were thrown down near the Indian village 
of which they are the only relics. The pine-apple is 
certainly a native of America, but it has the chara6teristics 
of a cultivated plant, while it is so widely distributed 
and requires so little attention that it may be considered 
as a tropical weed rather than a development of man's 
care and attention. Like the banana and sugar-cane, 
it produces no perfe6l seeds, but while the former 
hardly exist for a few years without cultivation even 
under the most favourable circumstances, the pine-apple 
on the contrary may flourish for ages. It has been 
suggested that the New World is really the older, is it 
possible that we have here an example of development 
far beyond anything to be found in the Eastern Hemis- 
phere ? Has the pine-apple been developed for such a 
long time that it is capable of flourishing independently ? 
D 2 
