Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-15

OF messy Oell, WIN llIIle OF no unQergIOWLn
and free access and an open view into sylvan
wilds. You may remember your experience
of last summer, when you took an excursion
into the woods. There you found a poetic
seclusion, a graceful disorder, mossy
grounds, trees of familiar kinds, springy
turf, bits of picturesque skies, and the sun
shedding softened streams of light upon tree
and turf.
''Ah! the African forest furnishes no such
picturesque sights or pleasant glades. Lam
guage is too poor to describe it. First,
think of the tropics and climate of humid
ity and heat OF perpetual summer. You feel
as you enter into this unknown region the
robustness of vegetation. There is still,
warm vapor in suffocating volumes. First
you dispense with your upper garments,
and then you want to get rid of the rest.
swELTERING GLOOM.
''The gloom is so great you can only COM
pare it to the twilight of evening. You gee
the LEAKAGE rising up black and green, i'm
penetrable clumps of trees, some of them
rising to the height of 250 feet. There 10
no symmetry, grace or softness, but all is
Wild, uncouth and awful. At every step you
see masses Of bewildering undergrowths, q
wonderful variety of plants. There is the
absence of any sense OF decay, but rather the
sense of the general healthfulness of the
plants, an enduring youth, exhaustless
wonders.
There is no longer any energy among Us.
We behold everlasting greenness, eternal
vitality and fertility. Above ali is a pro-
tecting, impenetraDle canopy. Sacred trees
with leafy crowns tower above US, African
mahogany, the unyielding iron wood, the
butternut tree and other varieties too numer-
Gus to mention, all united in closest embrace,
darkening the lite below till it is suggestive
of mystery and awe.
Gas we march silently, slowly and pain
fully on the forest changes its aspect, and
we note the labors of forgotten tribes and
come to swampy grounds. One day our
march is very slow through masses of forest
wIldness. On the next day we go through
= more open section; on the following day
through frowning depths and over ground
strewn with dead leaves, wormeaten trunks
or dried branches. But always and above
all tower the primeYal woods, the deep
shadows unbroken save by the flashes of
lightning.
ION some days the march has to be pro.
longed beyond the usual hour for hating
that bad been fixed upon because Of the dif-
fculty of choosing ground fit for a camp.
For we bear with US TONS of perishable
goods that have TO be protected from the
floods of rain.
"But at last a suitable spot is found. The
whistle is sounded and the loaded files come
up, and one by one they deposit their
burdens in due order. Then when the tents
were erected the camp resoUnded with the
sounds of voices. Some men with axes
trim the poles of the tents or cut fuel, Some
with knives peel the saplings to utilize the
bark for bedding. Some dig holes in the
ground for the tent poles.
FOREST GIANTS.
I'm couple of hours little town would
be seen and hundreds of fires would blaze
and 100 pots would be sending up clouds OF
savory steam. The camp was animated and
resounded with chatter, and it was all the
louder because confined by the four sides Of
our forest home
"After the guards were set around the
camp we felt safe from the surprises of the
cannibals and those who wished were free to
wander away. At such time have been
sensible of the utter poverty of words to de-
scribe my surroundings. 1t was not time
for poetic brooding, but one after another
the senses yielded to the charm Of seclusion.
Then beheld a magnificent forest in listen
ing attitude, great gloom, trees eloquent
of antiquity and of venerable brotherhood.
81 marveled at the age of the giants. I
saw the acorn drop and take root. Genera
tions had passed, empire after empire had
passed away, but the tree grew taller and
taller, ever speechless, ever fixed, but ex-
tending its limbs and root, Indifferent
whether its crested top were illumined with
sunshine or wet with the rain.
''Yonder is an ancient tree with massive
trunk and gray bark, with millions OF
wrinkles, which was born ], 900 years before
the siege of Troy. On the river bank
spreads out smother born about the time
Columbus crossed the Atlantic. One feels
tempted to interview these giants on the
times before the dusky natives had Scared