The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-12-25
Africa's Wonderful Forest.

The inexhaustible wonder of this
country is the forest. 1t never grows
familiar. The forest is not region
apart, bnt extends everywhere with
out break, except where it has been
cleared by man for his gardens aud
villages, or cleft by river too wide
for it to meet and close over from the
two banks. This part Of our planet
has double surface--thc real, solid
one underneath, and the leafy one
| above. Men traverse the solid surface
as if tunnels in a subterranean region.
Paths run from village to village under
the forest, like those of meadow mice
under the grass.
Mankind is limited to the real
earth s surface, and can have only dis
tant knowledge Of the world in the
trcc-tops. That is mostly out of his
sight. But the traveller marching
along the forest path often sees and
hears things to remind him Of this
upper world apart. He hears the
screams Of parrots invisible overhead,
hunting in the tree-tops for fruits
that he cannot see from below. He
hears confusion Of rushing sounds
like the arrival and departure of trains
at metropolitan station, and lcarus
at length that it is made by the long,
loosely plumed wings of hornbills,
flying from tree to tree as they feed.
Here and there the path is whitened
by petals fallen from somewhere
above. 1t is useless to try to tell
which tree or vine in the tangle has
borne them. Where big tree has
fallen carrying with it all its depen-
dent vines and connected trees, a rift
is made. Here the the.eyes, adjusted
to the sub-sylvan twilight, are daz-
zled by food of sunshine. On the
limbs Of the fallen tree are seen grow
iOg and blossomiog pendant orchids
md other air-plants, specimens from
the fora Of the upper region. One
seldom sees bird nest in this coun-
try; the birds have their homes in
the world above mans view.
While man sees this upper world at
distance, or not at all, his nearest
animal relations cannot reach it, but
are Mt homo in it. One may hear
the cries of monkeys above him
and the rustling of the branches
as they scamper away from tree
top to tree-top, faster than he
can follow on the ground. But to
catch glimpse of them is not so easy.
One may, perhaps, be shown by q
native guide some leafy bed in the
branches above and be told tn at Chin
panzees have slept there.
Nor are the monkeys and lemurs
the only aboreal animals. The forest
is paradise for squirrels, of which
they are eight or nine species, of all
colors and sizes, down to the little
pigmy squirrel the size of your thumb.
Besides, there is a whole peculiar fam
lily of scale tall flying squirrels, with
a sort Of hob-nails on the under side
of the tail, to help them climb or
jump. The cats, from the leopard
down, climb trees. The awkward
coney manages in some way to ascend
hollow or slanting trees, and his even
ing and morning cry is heard from the
upper region, though he comes down
to the lower to feed. Even snakes
are seen as often overhead as on the
ground.
Except where the path goes. the
under world is not much more acces-
sible than the upper. at least to the
white man, who doesn't know how to
twist in and out among thorDy vines.
The little antelopes, the wild hog and
the porcupine can slip about in the
universal thicket, and the elephant
crashes through it, uprooting sap
ling here aud there, and leaving a
br Dad path behind him. But these
animals are seldom seen or heard. In
general there is lonely silence below
the forest.
1t is gloomy and dark on this lower
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