Greene County herald., 1910-12-09
AFRICAN FOREST NOT so BAD
Frenchman Modifies the Gloomy Pic
lures of Earlier Travellers.

lures OF Earlier travellers.
The travellers who first penetrated
the vast equatorial forest of Africa
fixed the worlds attention with word
pictures that are now believed to be
partly fantastic. Some of them told
how they wandered months without
seeing the sun.
They lived at MONDAY in semi
darkness. The underground almost
prevented progress, no fresh breezes
could penetrate the area of gloom, and
even the animals were silent, like
every other phase of nature existing
there.
The writers of today are taking a
different view of this tropical forest.
The latest of them is Maurice Della
fosse, one of the leading colonial Off
cials of France, who in a book just
written contradicts many statements
of earlier travellers.
He says that nowhere has he found
the African forest darker than any
other dense woodland. The vegetation
in it is certainly more luxuriant and
more crowded together than in an Eu-
ropean forest, but it is an exaggera-
ton to say that they are covered with
impenetrable vegetation.
Wherever the natives live, well
worn footpaths lead in all directions.
Travelling is hard ON some of them,
but many Of the paths are very useful
highways.
Delafosse had none of the exper-
fence of travellers who asser. that
their garments had been practically
stripped off them by the dense and
thorny underground. He lived for
many months in forests without
greater damage to his clothing than in
any other parts of Africa, except that
when travelling rapidly on hunting
path his sleeves have become unduly
worn at the elbows.
AS for darkness in the forests, he
often took his compass without arti-
ficial light when pitching camp at
nightfall. The forest traveller has this
advantage, that he is always In
shadow, and on the hottest days he
can pursue his journey the whole af-
ternoon, which would be impossible in
the open country.
AS for the reputed feeling of dis
comfort and oppression in the depths
of the forest, this is partly true When
there is no stir in the atmosphere it is
more difficult to breathe in the forest
than in the open, and as there is less
chance for evaporation the discomfort
of excessive perspiration is manifest
It must be remembered, however
that If under such atmospheric condi-
tions man breathes more easily in
the open land he is at the same time
much hotter and so far more COM
Portable. When a breeze stirs any
where it penetrates the woods also
with refreshing effect.
Delafosse records that he has had
few such delightful experiences in
Africa as on his morning walks in the
depths of the forest. He has never
found forest travel as uncomfortable
as marching over the savannahs where
the high grass is above his head. 1t is
then that man without air, horizon
or shade feels as though he would
melt.
There are plenty of sounds in the
forest to attract attention also, and
they help to keep ennui at a distance
Something is going on all the time.
In addition to the ceaseless murmur
of the streams there are the humming
of insects, the song of birds, the chat
ter of the monkeys, their gymnastic
feats from branch to branch, the occa-
siona falling of dead branches and
tree trunks, and at night time the
wonderful harmonies and discords Of
animate and inanimate life that
awaken when darkness comes and
sleep again at sunrise.-New York
Sun.