weary--of contemplating the exterior of these tremendous woods,
try to penetrate a little into their interior. What an
inextricable chaos it is! The sands of a sea are not more
closely pressed together than the trees are here: some straight,
some curved, some upright, some toppling,--fallen, or leaning
against one another, or heaped high upon each other. Climbing
lianas, which cross from one tree to the other, like ropes
passing from mast to mast, help to fill up all the gaps in this
treillage; and parasites--not timid parasites like ivy or like
moss, but parasites which are trees self-grafted upon trees--
dominate the primitive trunks, overwhelm them, usurp the place of
their foliage, and fall back to the ground, forming factitious
weeping-willows. You do not find here, as in the great forests
of the North, the eternal monotony of birch and fir: this is the
kingdom of infinite variety;--species the most diverse elbow each
other, interlace, strangle and devour each other: all ranks and
orders are confounded, as in a human mob. The soft and tender
_balisier_ opens its parasol of leaves beside the _gommier_,
which is the cedar of the colonies you see the _acomat_, the
_courbaril_, the mahogany, the _tedre-à-caillou_, the iron-
wood... but as well enumerate by name all the soldiers of an
army! Our oak, the balata, forces the palm to lengthen itself
prodigiously in order to get a few thin beams of sunlight; for
it is as difficult here for the poor trees to obtain one glance
from this King of the world, as for us, subjects of a monarchy,
to obtain one look from our monarch. As for the soil, it is needless
to think of looking at it: it lies as far below us probably as the
bottom of the sea;--it disappeared, ever so long ago, under the heaping
of debris,--under a sort of manure that has been accumulating there
since the creation: you sink into it as into slime; you walk upon