At the end of an hour they had scarcely gone a mile. As they left the
river the trees assumed another aspect, and the animal life was no
longer met with near the ground, but at from sixty to eighty feet
above, where troops of monkeys chased each other along the higher
branches. Here and there a few cones of the solar rays shot down into
the underwood. In fact, in these tropical forests light does not seem
to be necessary for their existence. The air is enough for the
vegetable growth, whether it be large or small, tree or plant, and
all the heat required for the development of their sap is derived not
from the surrounding atmosphere, but from the bosom of the soil
itself, where it is stored up as in an enormous stove.
And on the bromelias, grass plantains, orchids, cacti, and in short
all the parasites which formed a little forest beneath the large one,
many marvelous insects were they tempted to pluck as though they had
been genuine blossoms--nestors with blue wings like shimmering
watered silk, leilu butterflies reflexed with gold and striped with
fringes of green, agrippina moths, ten inches long, with leaves for
wings, maribunda bees, like living emeralds set in sockets of gold,
and legions of lampyrons or pyrophorus coleopters, valagumas with
breastplates of bronze, and green elytr?, with yellow light pouring
from their eyes, who, when the night comes, illuminate the forest
with their many-colored scintillations.
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