Ever New And Never Old Or Twice Told Stories

d only to the less luxuriant aspect of colder climates, with astonishment and delight. Omy a small portion of the country is cultivated, and that portion embraces a strip of land which is separated from the coast by a belt of mangrove and Courida trees. Immediately back of the cultivated portion, and extending to the base of the mountains, lie dense forests, and well watered savannas. In these primitive forest scenes, gigantic trees raise their lofty crowns to a height unknown in our northern latitudes. Clusters of palm trees, the most grand and beautiful of all the vegetable forms, rise majestically above the surrounding vegetation, waving pinion-like leaves in the soft breezes that play among their branches. Such is the profuseness of vegetation here that nature, as if not satisfied with the soil allotted to her, decorates with parasites the trunks and limbs of trees, and even the rocks and stones beneath them. The parasites, which interlace the branches and trunks of the trees, are called Lianes, or "bush ropes," and in many cases, after surmounting the highest limbs, descend to the ground and take root again. The forests of Guiana are capable of affording supplies of timber unsurpassed in quality and durability for building purposes, or in beauty for household furniture or fancy work. Birds of brightest plumage, insects of remarkable instincts, and reptiles of the most dreaded natures, people the otherwise silent solitudes of these vast domains in ine...