Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-01-01
AFRICA,s WONDERFUL FOREST.
It's Animal Inhabitants and Oppres.
siye Loneliness to Man.

Its Animal Inhabitants and Oppres-
sive Loneliness to Man.
The inexhaustible wonder Of this
country is the forest. 1t never grows ia
miliar. The forest is not a region
apart, but extends everywhere without
break, except where Is has been
cleared by man for his gardens and
villages, or cleft by river too wide
for 1t to meet and close over from the
two banks. This part of our planet
has a double surface-the real, solid
one underneath, and the leafy one
above. Men traverse the solid surface
as IL by tunnels in subterranean re-
gion. Paths run from village to VII
lage under the forest, like those OF
meadow mice under grass.
Mankind Is limited to the real earths
surface, and can have only distant
knowledge of the world in the tree
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 par
rots invisible overhead, hunting In the
tree tops for fruits that he cannot see
from below. He hears a confusion OF
rushing sounds like the arrival ana
departure Of trains at metropolitan
station, and learns at. length that II Is
made by the long, loosely plumed
wings of hornbills flying from tree TO
tree as hey 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 depend
ent vines and connected smaller trees
a rift is made. Here the eyes, I'd
iusted to the sub-sylvan twilight, are
dazzled by flood of sunshine. On the
limbs of the fallen tree are seen grow
ling and blossoming pendant orchl1s
and other airplants, specimens from
the flora of the upper region. One sell
dom sees a birds nest in this country;
the birds have their homes in the world
above mans view.
While man sees this upper world at
a distance, or not at all, his nearest
animal relations cannot reach It; but
are at home in it. One may hear the
cries of monkeys above him, and the
rustling of the branches as they scam
per 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, per-
haps, be shown by a native guide some
Ileafy bed in the branches above and be
told that chimpanzees have slept there.
i Nor are the monkeys and lemurs
the only arboreal animals. The forest
Is a paradise for squirrels, of which
there are e,ghtsor nine species, Of all
colors and sizes, down to the little
pigmy squirrel, the size Of your thumb.
Besides, there is a whole peculiar TAM
ily Of scale tail 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 slantins
trees and his evening and morning cry
is heard from the upper region. though
he comes down to the lower to feed
Even snakes are seen as often over
head as on the ground.
Except where the path goes, the un-
der world Is not much more accessible
than the upper, at least to the white
man, who doesn't know how to twist
in and out among thorny vines. The
little antelopes, the wild hog and the
porcupine can slip about in the univer-
sal thicket. and the elephant crashes
through 1t. uprooting a sapling here
and there. and leaving a broad path
behind him. Rut these animals are
seldom seen or heard. In general there
is lonely silence below the forest.
It is gloomy and dark on this lower
deck Of the tropical world. The sun
shine. birds and flowers are mostly far
overhead. But one sometimes meets
DELIGHTFUL surprises. for there is beauty
even here. Several kinds Of trees and
shrubs have a way Of putting forth
blossoms right out Of the trunk. There
are flowers set right on the damp,
black bark, as yellow as Dakota sun
f1owers-so flaming that they seem to
light up the gloom. Again. at the right
season, one may find clusters Of blood
red fruit. growing low down on the
trunks Of trees. But these bits of
brightness are only occasional. For
the most part all is black, damp and
decaying.
The loneliness Of the forest is oppres-
sive After a half-day's tramp be-
tween two settlements there Is no
more welcome sight than a garden
clearing, showing that human habita-
tions are not far off. Then the two
rows Of smoky tumble-down huts with
the yellow clay street between, that
form the village. are a gladdening
view, for they are the dwellings of
ones own kind.
forest appears in the speech OF the
men who inhabit it. To go astray, or
aside, in the Fang language, is to go
Into the forest" To throw a thing
away is to throw 1t "a-forest." To
arrive at a place Is to "come out" or
emerge" while to set forth from a
place is to "enter." 1t is not necessa-
ry to add what Is entered or come
out from. AS evident in the charac-
ter of the people is an Unborn revulsion
against the loneliness Of the forest