VIEWS IN EQUATORIAL AFRICA.
The explorer, Paul Du Chaillu, gives some interesting views of sections
of Equatorial Africa, which from the western coast, as far as he had
been, are covered with an almost impenetrable jungle, which begins where
the sea ceases to beat with its continual waves; how much farther this
woody belt extends, only further explorations will be able to show. From
the farthest point it extends eastward as far as the eye can reach; near
the banks of a large river, however, running from a northeast direction
towards the southwest, prairie lands are to be seen.
"Now and then prairies looking like islands, resembling so many gems,
are found in the midst of this dark sea of everlasting foliage; and how
gratefully my eyes met them no one can conceive, unless he has lived in
such a solitude. Here and there prairies are seen from the seashore, but
they do not extend far inland, and are merely sandy patches left by the
sea in the progress of time.
"In this great woody wilderness man is scattered and divided into a
great number of tribes. The forest, thinly inhabited by man, was still
more scantily inhabited by beasts. There were no beasts of burden,
neither horse, camel, donkey, nor cattle. Men and women were the only
carriers of burdens. Beasts of burden could not live, for the country
was not well adapted to them. The only truly domesticated animals were
goats and fowls, the goats increasing in number as I advanced into the
interior, and the fowls decreasing.
"I was struck by the absence of those species of animals always found in
great number in almost every other part of Africa. Neither lions,
rhinoceroses, zebras, giraffes, nor ostriches were found; and the great
variety of elands and gazelles, although found almost everywhere else in
Africa, were not to be seen there.
"Travelers in my locality would never dream that such vast herds of game
could be found on the same continent, as those described by different
travelers. Hence, large carnivorous animals are scarce, leopards and two
or three species of hyenas and jackals only being found. Little
nocturnal animals are more common, but they are very difficult to get
at.
"Reptiles abound in the forest. There are a great many species of
snakes, the greater part of which are very poisonous. Some are ground
snakes, others spend part of their lives upon trees, while some are
water snakes. A very dangerous snake is the black variety of the cobra.
This snake is much dreaded; for, when surprised or attacked, it rises up
as if ready to spring upon you.
"There is also a large water snake found often in the beautiful clear
water of the streams of the interior. I have often seen this snake
coiled up and resting on the branches of trees under water.
"Lizards are also abundant in some districts, and it is interesting to
watch how they prey on the insect world. Among them I noticed a night
species, that lives in the houses, and that is the great enemy of
cockroaches. They are continually moving from one place to another
during the night in search of their prey. During the day, they remain
perfectly still, and hide themselves between the bark of trees forming
the walls of the huts.
"The country is also very rich in spiders; they are of wonderful
diversity of form. Some of them are so large and their webs so strong
that birds are said to be caught in them. There are house spiders, tree
spiders, and ground spiders. The spiders are exceedingly useful, and rid
the country of many unpleasant flies. How many times I have seen them
overpower prey which seemed much stronger than themselves.
"The web spiders seemed to have but a few enemies, but the house and
wall spiders, which make no web, have most inveterate enemies in the
shape of two or three kinds of wasps.
"During the day I have seen these wasps travel along the walls with a
rapidity that astonished me, and, finally, when coming to a spider,
immediately pounce upon the unfortunate insect and overpower it by the
quickness of the movements of their legs, and succeed in cutting, one
after the other, the legs of the spider close to the body, and then suck
it, or fly away with it to devour it somewhere else.
"I consider some species of ants, snakes, lizards, and spiders as most
useful; for they destroy a great quantity of insects and other vermin.
The great moisture of the country I have visited, with its immense
jungle, is well adapted for the insect world, and would prove a very
rich field for a naturalist and collector.
"I was surprised to see how closely several of them mimicked or imitated
other objects. Some looked exactly like the leaves on which they most
generally remain; others are exactly of the color of the bark of trees
on which they crawl; while others looked exactly like dead leaves, and
one or two like pieces of dead branches of trees. Dragon flies of
beautiful color were met near the pools.
"Bats are very abundant, and I had succeeded in making a fine collection
of them. They sometimes came by hundreds and spent the whole of the
night flying round a tree which bore fruits they liked, and the noise
made by their wings sounded strangely amid the stillness which
surrounded them.
"Squirrels are rather numerous, and there are a good number of species.
Birds of prey and snakes are their great enemies.
"There are eight species of monkeys, but they are not all found in every
district. They live in troops, but when old they live generally by
themselves or in pairs.
"Of all the mammalian animals inhabiting the forest the monkey tribe is
the most numerous; but the poor monkey is surrounded by enemies, the
greatest being man, who sets traps everywhere to catch him. Then he is
continually hunted by the negroes with guns or arrows. The guanonien, an
eagle, is also his inveterate enemy.
"The guanonien is a most formidable eagle, and, in spite of all my
endeavors, I have been unable to kill one. Several times I have been
startled in the forest by a sudden cry of anguish from a monkey which
had been seized by this 'leopard of the air,' as the natives often call
it, and then have seen the bird with its prey disappear out of sight.
"One day, hunting through the thick jungle, I came to a spot covered
with more than one hundred skulls of monkeys of different sizes. Some of
these skulls must have been those of formidable animals, and these now
and then succeeded, it appears, in giving such bites to this eagle that
they disabled him.
"For a while I thought myself in the Valley of Golgotha. Then I saw at
the top of a gigantic tree, at the foot of which were the skulls, the
nest of the bird, but the young had flown away. I was told by the
natives that the guanonien comes and lays in the same nest year after
year. When an adult specimen has been secured, it may be found to rival
in size the condor of America.
"By the side of wild men, roamed the apes, the chimpanzee forming
several varieties. Then came the largest of all, the gorilla, which
might be truly called the king of the forest. They all roamed in this
great jungle, which seems so well adapted to be their homes; for they
live on the nuts, berries, and fruits of the forest, found in more or
less numbers throughout the year; but they eat such a quantity of food
that they are obliged to roam from place to place, and are found
periodically in the same district.
"The elephant has become scarce, and recedes farther and farther every
year into the fastnesses of the interior.
"Mile after mile was traveled over without hearing the sound of a bird,
the chatter of a monkey, or the footstep of a gazelle, the humming of
insects, the falling of a leaf; only the gentle murmur of some hidden
stream came upon our ears to break the deadness of this awing silence,
and disturb the grandest solitude man can ever behold--a solitude which
often chilled me, but which was well adapted for the study of nature."