THE ATLANTIC COAST AND ITS CONNECTIONS. 51 
naturally, occur to the reader that this must greatly in¬ 
crease the difficulty of felling such trees in clearing land. 
The difficulty is met by the woodmen in this way. A plat¬ 
form— called, strangely enough, a “ barbecue ” — is built 
of slim poles, often to a height of fifteen feet; and balanced 
on these frail supports, the cutter swings his long-handled 
axe. Of course he leaves a stump as high as his barbecue; 
but the ants ( comajen ) soon reduce this to dust. I have 
since then watched the cutters, and have wondered how 
they so speedily fell (they call it “fall”) a hard-wood tree, 
with no better vantage than two poles for their bare feet 
to cling, to. 
All through the forest there was a close, damp feeling, 
and in some places there was little light. We saw sarsa¬ 
parilla, india-rubber, vanilla, and cacao growing wild, and 
every step brought some new thing to view; but it was 
less oppressive on the river, where there was sky above us 
of the true blue, — so much better to our tastes than the 
green canopy that met our eyes as we looked up on land. 
While on the river, we saw some curious long-legged 
spiders, seemingly plastered against the white limestone ; 
and they were very unwilling to move their legs, which 
were two inches long. The vejucos from the over-hang¬ 
ing branches were very interesting, as these long, slender 
rootlets, if rootlets they be, hung sometimes a hundred 
feet, ending close to the water, but not touching it except 
m flood-time, nor do they, like subterranean roots, have 
branches or fibrous ends, although sometimes they seem 
to be unravelled into separate strands, like a cord whose 
form they imitate and whose use they usurp. We often 
pulled them and shook the branches from which they 
spring, without detaching them. The water was now 
