Up the Puruni River. 317 
soft-wooded, tall-growing trees, one in particular, a 
pumpwood or baramalli, just in front of my benab, being 
quite 140 feet high. 
The camp opens out on to the river, at this spot 
about 120 yards wide, skirted on each side by the forest, 
which at various seasons, breaks here and there 
into masses of bloom — pink, red, orange, yellow and 
purple — borne principally by flowering trees and bush 
ropes, of which the last hang in graceful moss and fern- 
covered loops and bends from one tree to another, 
enveloping some of them in complete folds, and matting 
together their smaller branches and limbs. Over some 
of the trees too, a liana (Norantea guianensis) flings its 
sprays of flame-coloured blossoms mounting up in step- 
like stages, while others are covered by clusters of the 
purple Petrsea, a very common plant in this part of the 
colony. 
The days used to pass pleasantly enough, the mono- 
tony of life being broken occasionally by the passing of 
a boat carrying diggers to or from their placers, who some- 
times sang as they paddled ; and the cheering rattle of the 
paddles against the boat's side blended not unpleasantly 
with the song as the men's voices rose and fell, echoing 
far into the forest, and down the long reach of the river. 
As the boat passed close by the camp, inquiries would be 
shouted from each party as to how such and such friends 
were, and for how long they were up, or had been up 
the river; and after several "walk goods" and ''stand 
goods" were exchanged, the boat would turn the point : 
and monotony once more reigned supreme. 
Seated in my benab, I could hear in the forest around 
me the hum of inse6t life ; while overhead, in the almost 
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