THE BRAZILIAN FOREST 
the constant chopping down of trees of all sizes, under¬ 
growth, bamboos, liane, and other creepers. As a matter 
of fact, any experienced traveller has much less trouble 
in going through the forest than people imagine. This is 
not the case with people unacquainted with the forest, or 
with people whose sense of observation is not much de¬ 
veloped. One can go sometimes for miles through the 
dense forest without once using knives at all; although 
necessarily a knife must be carried, as there are places 
where a cut from its blade will make passing through 
more comfortable. This is particularly true of the 
Brazilian forest. The forests of that country, especially 
in the central region where I was then travelling, were 
wonderfully clean, when once you entered them, although, 
when seen from the river, they appeared impenetrable. 
Near the water, owing to the moisture, there was fre¬ 
quently a thick but narrow belt, only a few metres wide, 
of dense growth. Beyond it, when you were in the forest 
itself, nothing grew under the trees, and the ground was 
just as clean as the best kept English park. One could 
walk in comfort without the slightest trouble, an oc¬ 
casional well-applied blow with the heavy-bladed knife 
disentangling in a second an interfering liane which might 
stand in one’s way. 
It must not be forgotten that you can get under or 
over liane, or shift them on one side, without ever having 
the trouble of severing them. It is only occasionally, when 
they are entangled, that it saves time to cut them. 
Barring an occasional thick belt along the Amazon 
River, it is almost safe to assert that an experienced 
man can travel alone anywhere in the forests of Brazil 
without carrying a penknife. This is not the case, of 
course, when you are travelling with a caravan and with 
baggage, for then a sufficiently large passage has to be 
opened. 
In Africa the equatorial forests are incomparably 
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