Page 10 - Malaysia by John Russel Denyes

A Jungle With the exception of Java the whole
Country of Malaysia is one vast jungle with only
here and there small sections where the
forest has been cleared away to make room for
cultivation. Giant trees a hundred and fifty feet
tall crowd upon one another. Smaller trees are
massed in between, struggling up towards the
sunlight far above them. Great palms, like forest
trees but covered with long, sharp, spiny thorns,
block the traveler's way ; and monster ferns wave
their fifteen-foot, feathery leaves. Long, rope-
like roots creep downward from the dripping
branches a hundred feet above ; and to the trunks
of the trees cling multitudes of priceless orchids.
And everywhere the various creepers with their
hook-shaped claws spread themselves out like a
great lace curtain over the tree-tops, binding all
nature together and shutting out the sunlight.

The hunter's Through these tropical jungles
paradise roam great herds of wild elephants.
In the shallow waters plays the
rhinosceros. Here is the home of the tapir and
the ant-eater. Here also are found tigers, leo-
pards, panthers, wild cats, and bears. Various
varieties of deer are found in the forests, includ-
ing the tiny mouse deer, scarcely larger than a
jack-rabbit. Wild cattle, more dangerous than
the tigers, charge the unwary hunter; and wild
pigs root up the farmer's rice fields. Crocodiles
swarm in the rivers; countless apes, monkeys,
baboons, and orang-outangs make their home in
the trees ; horn-bills, parrots, pheasants, and birds
of paradise live among the branches while snakes,
;
lizards, centipedes, and scorpions infest the
ground.
Scientists in Java have classified one hundred
and thirteen varieties of land snakes and twenty
varieties of water snakes. Of these, twenty va-
4