Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1882-12-09
A CeyIOn Jungle.

Prof. Haeckel thus describes his HrsS
attempt to penetrate 4 Ceylon jungle.
The Jungle, he says. is not, properly
speaking, primeval forest-forest, that
is, untrodden by the foot of man (such
are in Ceylon of small extent and rare
occurrence)--but it corresponds to our
idea of such 4 forest in that it consists
Of a dense and in1penetrable mass of
mighty trees of all kinds, which have
sprung up without regularity or any in
reference from man, and are sur
rounded and overgrown bya wilderness
of creeping and climbing plants, of
ferns, orchids, and other parasites, the
intcrstices being so completely filed up
with a motley mas of smaller weeds
that it is quite impossible to disentangie
the coil of tendrils SO as to distinguish
one species from the other. My first
attempt to penetrate such a Jungle as
this was sufficient to convince me of the
impossibility of the undertaking, except
with the aid of an AK and fire: A hard
hours work brought me only a few
steps into the thicket, and then I was
obliged to acknowledge myself a n
pushed, and make good a retreat,
stung by mosquitoes, bitten by ants,
with torn clothes, and arms and legs
bleeding from the thorns and prickles.
with which the climbing palm (Cal-
amus), the climbing Hibiscus. the
Euphorbia, and o multitude of other
Jungle plants repulse every attack made
on their impenetrable labyrinth. But
the attempt had not been made alto
gether in vain, forit enabled me to gain
a very fair idea of the jungle as a whole,
more especially of the magnificence of
its trees and creepers, besides intro
ducing me to- many separate varieties
of animal and vegetable life, which
were of the highest interest; here Z
saw the magnificent Gloriosa superba,.
the poisonous climbing lily of Ceylon.
with its red and amber flowers; the
prickly Hibiscus radiatus,. with large.
cup-shaped, brimstone-c olored flowers,
deepening to violet in the hollow: while
around iuttered gigantic black butter
flies, with blood-red spots on their tail
shaped wings, and chafers and dragon
flies flew past with a metallic CLEAN.
But my delight reached its height when
on this, my first attempt to penetrate a
jungle in Ceylon, I came across the two
most characteristic of its inhabitants
from among the higher class of animals
parrots and apes. A flock of green
parrots flew screening from alofty tree
as they became aware of the gun n my
hand, and at the same moment herd
of great black apes sprang with a
growing cry into the thicket. I did
not succeed in getting a shot at either
n or the other. They appearsdto be
too familiar with the look of a gun. I
was consoled, however, by securing
with my first shot a colossal lizard
or iguana six feet long, of a kind
held in much awe by the superstitious-
natives (Hydrosaurus s~alvaior). The
huge, crocodile-like beast was summing
himself on the edge of a water-tank,
and the shot hit him. so, precisely on the
head as to kill him at once. Had it
! struck any less vital part he would
! probably have dived into the water and
disappeared. When seized, the iguana.
has the power of hitting SO sharp a blow
with its scaly tail IS to cause a severe
wound. and ever sometimes a broken:
limb.