side, he
began almost to wish himself at home.

After passing a grove of the stately palms known as the "traveler's
tree," they found themselves on a path that led to the bank of a river.
They endeavored to ford it, but speedily found that the danger from deep
holes and ugly-looking crocodiles was too great for them to proceed. So
Raheh, the chief bearer, uttered a curious cry, or signal, which soon
brought into view a _lakana_, or canoe, rudely fashioned from a hollow
tree-trunk; and in it a native was paddling rapidly toward them.

Harry and his father stepped into the rather shaky-looking craft not
without misgivings, but they were soon safely landed on the other
shore. When all had been thus ferried across and the native boatman had
been paid, the party entered the great forest of Alamazaotra, which
covers more than forty miles of wild and mountainous country.

[Illustration: THE LACE-LEAF OF MADAGASCAR.]

Their path at once led them through a gorge so narrow that the sides of
the palanquin grazed the rocky walls, and the masses of tangled foliage,
meeting far above their heads, almost entirely obscured the light. The
bearers paused for breath after climbing the steep ascent that led from
this gloomy pass, and Harry and his father exclaimed in wonder at the
strange beauty of the wild tropical forest.

Gigantic palms upheld around their stately heads a leafy dome closely
interlaced by clinging vines. Long garlands of moss and climbing plants
crossed and recrossed this lofty roof, and from its shadowy arches great
masses of gray moss hung suspended. Here and there among the cool green
and gray tints of leaves and moss some tropical flowers and fruits
gleamed forth in bright flashes of scarlet and gold.

Myriads of frail wood-blossoms hid their pale heads under the feathery
ferns that clustered about the roots of the trees, and the dead palms
were tenderly shrouded in waxy-leaved climbing vines, their graceful
fallen crowns replaced by masses of green ferns, intermingled with the
faint pink and blue tints of some rare orchid. On every side were little
groves of bamboo,--their light-green fringes contrasting with the darker
fronds of the stately tree-fern.

Absolute silence reigned throughout this solitude, and Harry began to be
so oppressed by the stillness as to grow fearful of danger. But his
father explained that during the wet season, in which they were
traveling, insect life in these tropical forests is asl