Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-10-03
An Ama-onian Forest.
TIE PoETICAL IDEA OF \ TROPICAL WILDER
NEST DESTROYED.

Prom Srrihncr.l
On three sides of the cane field the for
est rises in solid mass fully 100 feet. A
distance Of fifteen or twenty miles, may
be, has been reached by the hunters and
sarsaparilla gathcrcrs; beyond that the
country is ms completely terra incognita
as the other side Of the moon. But 81
far as We know, with very slight breaks.
the whole Of the AnazOnian highland is
covered with this thick growth Of trees
| there is no other forest region Ill the
world Of like extent, and none SO re-
markablc for the variety and richness OF
its productions. Where the land has
been recently cleared we get a kind of
section of the forest hundreds of gray
and white columns set close together
like the pickets of n fence, and support
ing green roof above But within
everything is maze; chaotic confu-
sion of tree trunks and vines, and branches
and leaves.
Even on the ocean You are not SO
weighted with a sense of your insigniti-
cance as when wanderingm in these pathlcss
solitudcs. For at Sea there is always the
same horizon. IL definite boundary TO
vision: and i'll the very attempt to reach
beyond it the imagination forms an ideal
ocean, a limited immensely. The ship
carries you on without any bodily exer-
ton of your own; you know that you are
moving. as you know that the earth
moves. but day after day there are the
same sea and sky to give the lie to your
reasoning. In the forest You are forced
to measure vour own power with the in
finite.
Guided by the compass. You keep a
straight line for days together, but it is
not like n woodland walk at home; you
must do battle for your right of way,
cutting n narrow passage through hedge
like thicket, and mats of woody vines,
and interlaced branches. And then, after
n day Of hard fighting, You lay yourself
down at the foot of some giant tree. and
look up, up, to where the boughs are all
mingled together, and single leaves are
undistinguishable, where the fragments
of blue sky seem hardly more distant
than the tree-tops, as if you saw them
through an inverted telescope; ; and then
off through the vague network of leaves.
and tree trunks, and ropelike air roots,
and twisted vines, until the vision is lost,
you know not where; only you feel in
your inmost soul that there is Il myste-
rious and Imfathomablc depth beyond
you know that you are hardly within the
borders Of this wilderness where you
could travel for months and never reach
the end You compare your own httleness
with the lttleness of II single tree, which.
standing alone, would he beacon for
miles around and You bow YOUR head
with fear and trembling, with the cry of
the human, BE pitiful. O Coli
At first there is only the overwhelming
impression of extent and impenetrablc
tnngle After n while the eyes grow ac-
customed to the labyrinth, and we begin
to notice its component parts then We
see how different the highland forest is
from the pictures w had drawn of it.
We get oar ideas of the tropics from the
greenhouse. where u great number Of
broad-leaved. handsome plants are
gathered from every quarter of the world,
and thrown together without any regard
10 their distribution in nature; all of
them remarkable for their singular forms,
or bright colors. on snowy flowers. But
the high forest has nothing to compare
with this; in many respects it rather re-
semblcs our woods AT home. only it is far
thicker and higher
Palms are common in many places. bnt
as their tops are lost in the tancle above,
We hardly notice them only the large,
stemless curuas sometimes form II pccu-
liar foreground. There are no bananas,
no callas, no hnmboos even the orchids
and bromelias are hidden among the
branches, fifty feet over our heads. For
the most part the trees look much like
Northern species. Almost all forest trees
are straight and comparatively slender;
here the trunks are more buried in foil
age. and the upper branches are hun
dred, perhaps a hundred and fifty. feet
from the ground. Some form tlutcd
columns on buttresses around the roots II
few are spiny. In the foliage We only
notice the curious effect produced by the
prepondermce of pinnate leaves, as in
the acacias and myrtles. But ina North
ern wood. over large tracts We find only
pines. or beeches. or oaks, or at most
only four or five kinds together. Here
there will hardly he two kinds alike on an
acre III days walk we NAV see three or
four hundred species But there are
exceptions to this in many places the
ground is largely occupied by two orthree
species, but not to the entire exclusion Of
the others.
RULES FOR Polite BEHAVIOR, 1766. -
Do not nudge Your neighbors with vour
elbows do not scratch yourself do not
hetray by any gesture that Won are hun
grv, and do not look eagerly at the food