And besides there was the ironwood; and more
particularly the _"ibiriratea,"_ nearly black in its skin, and so
close grained that of it the Indians make their battle-axes;
_"jacarandas,"_ more precious than mahogany; _"c?salpinas,"_ only now
found in the depths of the old forests which have escaped the
woodman's ax; _"sapucaias,"_ one hundred and fifty feet high,
buttressed by natural arches, which, starting from three yards from
their base, rejoin the tree some thirty feet up the stem, twining
themselves round the trunk like the filatures of a twisted column,
whose head expands in a bouquet of vegetable fireworks made up of the
yellow, purple, and snowy white of the parasitic plants.
Three weeks after the work was begun not one was standing of all the
trees which had covered the angle of the Amazon and the Nanay. The
clearance was complete. Joam Garral had not even had to bestir
himself in the demolition of a forest which it would take twenty or
thirty years to replace. Not a stick of young or old wood was left to
mark the boundary of a future clearing, not even an angle to mark the
limit of the denudation.
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