How large, do you ask? I can hardly tell you. Are you thinking of Epping or the New Forest? True, these are large woods, and have been larger at one time. But if you draw your ideas of a great forest from either of these you must prepare yourselves for a startling announcement--and that is, that the forest through which I am going to take you is _as big as all Europe_! There is one place where a straight line might be drawn across this forest that would measure the enormous length of two thousand six hundred miles! And there is a point in it from which a circle might be described, with a diameter of more than a thousand miles, and the whole area included within the vast circumference would be found covered with an unbroken forest!
I need scarce tell you what forest I allude to, for there is none other in the world of such dimensions--none to compare with that vast, trackless forest that covers the valley of the mighty Amazon!
And what shall we see in travelling through this tree-covered expanse? Many a strange form of life--both vegetable and animal. We shall see the giant "ceiba" tree, and the "zamang," and the "caoba," twined by huge parasites almost as thick as their own trunks, and looking as though they embraced but to crush them; the "juvia," with its globe-shaped fruits as large as the human head; the "cow-tree," with its abundant fountains of rich milk; the "seringa," with its valuable gum--the caoutchouc of commerce; the "cinchona," with its fever-killing bark; the curious "volador," with its winged seeds; the wild indigo, and the arnatto. We shall see palms of many species--some with trunks smooth and cylindrical, others covered with thorns, sharp and thickly set--some with broad entire leaves, others with fronds pinnate and feathery, and still others whose leaves are the shape of a fan--some rising like naked columns to the height of an hundred and fifty feet, while others scarcely attain to the standard of an ordinary man.
On the water we shall see beautiful lilies--the snow-white _nymphs_, and the yellow _nuphars_. We shall see the _Victoria regia_ covering the pool with its massive wax-like flowers, and huge circular leaves of bronze green. We shall see tall flags like Saracen spears, and the dark green culms of gigantic rushes, and the golden _arundinaria_--the bamboo, and "caña brava,"--that rival the forest trees in height.