La
Pelée.
277
VI.
, . . W E enter the grands-bois,—the primitive forest,— the " high woods." A s seen with a field-glass from St. Pierre, these woods present only the appearance of a band of moss belting the volcano, and following all its corrugations,—so densely do the leafy crests intermingle. But on actually entering them, you find yourself at once in green twilight, among lofty trunks uprising everywhere like huge pillars wrapped with vines ;—and the interspaces between these bulks are all occupied by lianas and parasitic creepers,— some monstrous, — veritable parasite-trees, — ascending at all angles, or dropping straight down from the tallest crests to take root again. The effect in the dim light is that of innumerable black ropes and cables of varying thicknesses stretched taut from the soil to the tree-tops, and also from branch to branch, like rigging. There are rare and remarkable trees here,— acomats, courbarils, balatas, ceibas or fromagers, acajous, gommiers ; — h u n dreds have been cut down by charcoal-makers; but the forest is still grand. It is to be regretted that the Government has placed no restriction upon the barbarous destruction of trees by the charbonniers, which is going on throughout the island. Many valuable woods are rapidly disappearing. The courbaril, yielding a fine-grained, heavy, chocolate-colored timber ; the balata, giving a wood even heavier, denser, and darker ; the acajou, producing a rich red wood, with a strong scent of cedar ; the bois-de-fer ; the bois d'Inde ; the superb acomat,— all used to flourish by tens of thousands upon these volcanic slopes, whose productiveness is eighteen times greater than that of the richest European soil. All Martinique furniture used to be made of native woods ; and the colored cabinet-makers still produce work which would probably astonish New York or London manu22