MORNING IN THE FOREST.

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"It is six o'clock in the morning. The sun gilds the green and sombre curtains, but cannot penetrate them. A single sheaf of rays glances spirally across the dry branches of a lightning-stricken irribira, and caresses some delicate shrubs with red flowers at my feet. Little caravans, in full march, produce a murmur among the leaves and the grass. These are the workmen of the forest-insects, ants, lizards-who go out to collect food, or to hunt a still lesser prey. The butterflies flutter over the chalices, whence the bee has extracted sweets. The tribe of neutral pismires go forth in squads to seek the grub, who, hidden under the mosses, timidly gnaws little leaves and roots. As for the larger members of the brute creation-the stags and tapirs-they take their breakfast afar off, in concealed lairs beneath the rocks.

"Above the creepers and the ferns, on the high branches, prattling paroquets scold and chatter under the foliage. Squirrels and monkeys, red and brown, with furry tails, swing and grimace, like cabin-boys at a yardarm. Delicate little insects skip about; the grasshopper exhausts his repertory of song, and the humming-bird seeks the pollen. The flycatcher with its ruby wings, the emerald coleopteræ, and the moths, with shining corslets and blue wings, flit about, cross each other, rise and fall like sparks from a firework, or vibrate, glittering like gold, and vanish in the distance.

"Much less noise is made by animated nature down in the greensward. Nevertheless, there is in that

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FOREST THOUGHTS.

locality a living, active, busy world.

The trunks of the trees are peopled: there are hives of industry in their roots, the bark conceals its legions, and the sap flows and circulates. Life is every where. Creation is incessant, universal, infinite; nothing extinguishes it; it even lives on death.

"What I saw and felt in the forest was this. There was a grand and truly rich panorama, a soft yet powerful orchestra, a greenhouse filled with perfumes, a jewel-box whose precious stones were wild flowers. All the senses were intensely gratified. And was not the mind also feasted? Yes, verily; it had its rays and blandishments. The future of the trees was in itself a source of interesting reflection. That great trunk, tall, straight, and smooth, rising like a palm-tree towards the skies, -what will become of it? I see it, in fancy, levelled, planed, lying in the dockyard, then converted into a ship's mast, and carrying forth the flags of nations, and the ideas and products of civilisation. It will perhaps bear the blessed sail which will waft me to the harbour of my beloved native land.

"Grow, grow, shoot upwards and upwards, tree of my dreams and hopes! May the white ant leave thy powerful trunk, and the thunderbolt spare thy head!

". . . . How generous and fruitful is the virgin forest of southern lands! She holds out her breast to all the world, like her mother Cybele. She offers seeds, essences, hidden powers for the uses of science, art, and labour, and she asks nothing of man in return. She

PRODUCE OF THE FOREST.

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shelters beneath her foliage the immense animal life which knows her not,—from the insect to the panther, from the mite to the monkey. The Indian himself derives from her his bed and his fruits, like the plant and the bee. She is sufficient unto herself; renews her powers age after age, and is always equally green and youthful. The forest is one of the great, free, and sovereign beings still extant in the earth; and what is the secret of its existence? Heat and moisture, the sun and the dew-drops.

"What the sun and the dew are to the forest, science and toil are to humanity. The forest is not, then, a mere picturesque ensemble-the grand poem of the eyes -it is a profound philosopher, a revelation which proclaims one of the grand laws of creation."

AN INDIAN JUNGLE.

As a suitable pendant to the foregoing sketch of a Brazilian forest, the following graphic picture of a jungle in Ceylon, from the graceful pen of Sir James E. Tennent, may be offered. It describes a day in a jungle.

"Pusilawa and the surrounding valleys and forests have furnished large collections of objects illustrative of the zoology of Ceylon; but this is a source of enjoyment of which the successors of the present generation will be deprived by the felling of the forests and the destruction of the jungle which now affords protection to multitudes

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