The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1874-05-07
A Magnificent Country.

The British troops in Ashantee certain,
ly beheld some chaamng sights. Here
is a picture Of African scenery from the
CORES pondence of the London Daiy
Ne1Ds
"When Lieutenants Richmond and
Woodgate went up with their company
to build a redoubt, the thickness of the
underground in the bush forbade any
view whatever. BY hacking at this
underground, by telling the smaller
trees and keeping up perpetual fires,
they have cleared considerable space
upon the crest, aud exposed charming
view. Ga either side rose lofty hills,
clothed in green from base to summit
Very far off, in the misty distance be
yond Coomassic, is faint shadow Of
mountains. The level between, through
which lies our road, is beheld through
breaks of foliage exactly like that affec
toned by the earliest of Italian painters
Giorgioue might have studied his tree
effects from this spot. The plain lies
misty aud vague, its tones Of delicate
verdure fading at the distance into
golden haze. High above the forest
level uprise the pale green crowns OF
cotton trees, disdainful of lower growths
Creepers drop like a brown waterfall
down the trunks. Great runs of fern
encircle their branches, or hang their
leaves like stag horns from the topmost
boughs. A few trees bear crown of
blossoms, scarlet or pink, but not to
match in mass or beauty the billant
garden of Fanteeland Animal life, for
all we see of it, might not exist at all in
this country. We hear birds and beasts
sometimes; occasionally we see parrots
fly overhead, at a distance to skim the
tallsst boughs; but few of US have be.
held creature that runs or flies except
the insects | mediate short digres.
sion on the creeping things of Africa in
some pause Of the campaign. 1t is suf-
fceut now to say that no country in the
world can compare with this for variety
anG number o! its insects"
Another correspondent writes:
GA little stream goes clean and clear
over some shisgly pebbles, and bends in
and out above and below the road among
foliage rich enough to deck, not crowded
enough to conceal it, Immediately after
crossing one Of the richest banks Of
flowers which have here seen presented
itself, the chief feature being a plant
whose name | do not know, very like a
cowslip in the actual flower, but with u
bright white leaf standing out as if part
of the flower itself behind each flower
head, and the plant growing into luxurious
masses on stems six or seven feet high !;
the whole intertwined with ferns and
creepers innumerable. The bank had a
curious !ook-roots stood out from it as
from the base Of fallen tree, and by the
irregularity and ruggedness they gave to
it added to its picturesqueuess and beauty.
Yet the whole appearance Of bank, and
not of a huge root, was there, from the
completeness with which nature had
decked every nook and Granny. | was
rather puzzled, and went around behind
it to find plainly enough, stretchigg along
behind it for, perhaps, sixty yards, the
quite rotten carcass Of an old forest king
now no longer, except by its mere
shape, distinguishable from a mound of
rich earth and covered all over with
rich, high growing moss and ferns and
plants Of all kinds"