The labor standard., 1919-09-01

:
 right at the back door of the Panama canal lies an almost unknown jungle wilderness, unmapped and practically uninhabited in the interior except for 8 few very primitive In- dfans. Virtually the entire eastern portion of the republic of Panama ly- ing between the canal and Colombia, roughly 300 miles long by from 50 to 100 miles wide, is unknown, and the published maps of this country, except for the seacoast and the location of half a dozen small towns, are all faked, writes Lieut.. Col. Townsend Whelen in Natural History.
 It was my good fortune to spend the entire dry seasons December to June)' of 1916 and 1917 exploring a part of this country. We found it necessary to know something of that portion of it nearest the canal, and it fell to my lot, assisted by Companies E and H.. Twenty-ninth United States infantry to make preliminary exploration with a view to planning and expedit- ing its accurate mapping by the en- gineer corps.
 It is because this little piece of jun gle probably will remain virgin and unspoiled for many years that I think it ought to be brought to the attention of our field naturalists. It is so easily accessible, and yet only the borders of it have been scratched by the scien- tist. No one yet knows what is in the interior, what secrets it contains, what new fauna and flora its exploration will reveal.
 In the Real Jungle.
 In the Canal zone, which extends five miles to either side of the canal, prac- tlcally all of the jungle forest has long since been cut off, and in it's place has grown up a dense, impenetrable sec ond group of small trees, palms, creep one cuts his way through this tangled growth for about five miles in from the canal he comes to the real jungle, standing up like a gigantic wall of green verdure. Once in it all is diff ferent, even the very climate itself. Here one can wander at will, unim- peded by thorns and creepers. It is even easier travelling here than in the woods of our own Northeast, because as a rule there is much less down" timber. It is like new world, world that one has not even read about.
 From the blazing sun and sweltering heat of the second growth one enters what is almost an underground world, cool and balmy. Everywhere the giant trees go up limbless for from 100 to POO feet, and then spread out their verdure, literally hiding the sky. Beau tiful slender palms grow in great pro- fusion in the semidarkness forming the lower growth, impeding ones view but not ones progress. Scarcely ever can one see more than 50 yards, and never does the explorer get an extend ed view, even from the tops of the highest mountains. When I first en- tered the jungle it was with an inde- scribable feeling of awe and wonder, and this feeling has never left me: nay, it persists, drawing me, calling me to come back, more insistent even than the Gall of the North"
 UnexpIored Mountain Ranges.
 That part of the jungle in which my most intensive exploration was con- ducted lies to the east of the city of Colon, between there and the town of Nombre de Dois, and extending from the Caribbean coast inland to the head waters of the Chagres river system. Between the Chagres basin and the Caribbean coast rises the cordillera of Cerro Bruja, a mountain range that starts about ten miles east of Colon, and rises steadily, eliminating in the peak of Cerro Bruja (3,2OO feet) about 15 miles south of the town of Porto