Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1890-09-06

to four feet In diameter. linen from
tree to tree run cables from two inches
in diameter. Then from tree to tree
run cables from two inches
to fifteen inches in diameter, up
and down in loops and fes-
toons and WIS and badly formed Ms;
fold them round the trees in great
tight coils, until they have run up
the entire height, like endless ana
condas; let them flower and leaf lux
uriantly, and mix up above with the
foliage of the trees to hide the sun,
then from the highest branches let
fall the ends of the cables reaching
near to the ground by hundreds with
frayed extremities, for these repre-
sent the air roots Of the Epiphytes;
let slender cords hang down also in
tassels with open thread-work at the
ends. Work others through and
through these as confusedly as posi-
bic, and pendent from branch to
branch-with absolute disregard of
material, and at every fork and on
every horizontal branch plant cab
bage-like lichens of the largest
kind, and broad spearsleaved plants
these would represent the elephant
cared plant-and orchids and clusters
of vegetable marvels, and drapery
of delicate ferns which abound, Now
cover tree, branch, twig, and creeper
with thick moss like a green fur.
Where the forest is compact as de-
scribed above, we may not do more
than cover the ground closely with a
thick crop of phrynia, and amoma,
and dwarf bush; but if the lightning,
as frequently happens, has severed
the crown of proud tree, and let in
sunlight, or split a giant down to its
roots, or scorched it dead, or lorna
do has been uproOting a few trees,
then the race for air and light has
caused multitude of baby trees to
rush upward-CrOwded, crushing,
and treading upon and strangling
one another, until the whole is one
impervious bush.
To complete the mental picture of
this ruthless forest, the ground should
be strewed thickly with half formed
humus Of rotting twigs, leaves,
branches; every few yards there
should be PROSTATE giant, reeking
compost of rotten fibres, and depart
ed generations of insects, and colonies
of ants, half yelled with masses OF
vines and shrouded by the LEAKAGE OF
multitude of baby saplingS, lengthy
briars and calamus in many fathom
lengths, and every mile or so there
should be muddy streams, stagnant
creeks, and shallow pools, green with
duckweed, leaves of lotus and lilies,
and greasy green scum composed
Of millions of finite growths. Then
people this vast region Of woods with
numberless fragments of tribes, who
are at war with each other and who
live apart from ten to fifty miles in
the midst of a PROSTATE forest
/, amongst whose ruins they have
planted the plantain, banana, maniOc
beans, tobacco, cOlocassia, gourds
melons, &C., and who, in order tC
make their villages inaccessible, have
/ resOrted to every means of defence
suggested to wild men by the nature
of their lives. They have planted
f skewers along their paths, and cum
ningly hidden them under an appar
emily stray leaf, or on the lee side 0
; a log, by striding over which TIT
/ naked foot is pierced, and the intrud
er is either killed from the poison
smeared on the tops of the skewers
or famed for months. They havO
| piled up branches, and have formed
2 abattis of great trees, which they III
3 in wait behind with sheaves of pOis
= oned arrows, wooden spears harden
5 ed in fire, and smeared with poison.
. The reader must be referred to tn
/ book itself for the full account of tn
l many forest tribes of dwarfs and can
= nibals, their dress, dwellings, ant
: customs Of peace and war; of tn
/. treasures of this forest in the way O
l rare tropical woods, gums and dyes
y including its inexhaustible supply o
n rubber trees, destined apparently t
!, revolutionize the rubber trade of tn
e world; of the fertile upland regions
r peOpled by heretofore unknown Indo
e Ethiopic races of men, with wei
developed agricultural and pastora
< civilization; of SANKEY'S discovery G
q the mountains of the Moon," an