1932 Exploring BRITISH GUIANA magazine article, jungle, insects, animals etc

Description

Selling is a 1932 magazine article about:
BRITISH GUIANA
Title: A NEW WORLD TO EXPLORE
Author: MAJ. R. W. G. Hingston, Leader of the Oxford University Expedition to British Guiana
Subtitled "In the Tree-Roof of the British Guiana Forest Flourishes Much Hitherto-Unknown Life”
Quoting the first page “Yet another continent of life remains to be discovered, not upon the earth, but 100 to 200 feet above it, extending over thousands of square miles of South America. At present we know almost nothing about it. Up to now gravitation and tree trunks swarming with terrible ants have kept us at bay, and of the tree-top life we have obtained only unconnected facts and specimens. There awaits a rich harvest for the naturalist who overcomes the obstacles-gravitation, ants, thorns, decayed trunks-and mounts to the summit of the jungle trees."
So wrote Dr. William Beebe, who, though he had made several successful journeys to British Guiana in pursuance of his wide range of biological investigations, had not penetrated the tree-roof to make a detailed study of its wonders.
Here, indeed, was a place worth every effort to investigate-a rolling, wind-tossed sea of green extending for several thousand square miles and teeming with a life which was biologically unknown. Lured by its promise, a group of Oxford men under my direction decided to examine an area of forest on the right bank of the Essequibo River.
We equipped ourselves with a variety of climbing apparatus, such as line-shooting machines and rocket-firing guns for propelling ropes over high branches, thousands of feet of cordage for making hauling constructions, pulleys for use in block and tackles, iron spikes for building spike ladders, and wooden scaling ladders capable of extension. Long-range spray pumps were procured for shooting poisons at insect warriors that would obstruct our invasion of their homeland.
The area selected was ideal for our survey; for it was as nearly primeval forest as could be found. Here everything was in an unaltered state, with all the trees in their natural associations, as they had no doubt existed for a thousand years or more.
The forest was composed of tall, straight trees. Some were monsters, with broad buttressed bases which, like pillars, supported the overhead roof. The vast majority, however, were of smaller size, crowded together by thousands, all competing, struggling, jostling with one another in their efforts to get their heads into the tree-roof. Every tree we examined was perfectly straight. Hardly one had a branch until near the canopy, where, at a height of about 70 feet, occurred division into a simple fork.
Bush ropes of every degree of thickness spread about in this thicket of straight poles. Some swung across in pendent loops, or hung down like loose, swinging cordage; others twisted themselves round the great tree trunks in strangling, serpentine coils. Mosses, epiphytes, lichens, and ferns crowded the trunks and high branches in tropical profusion. Overhead the tree tops made a green roof, and the fallen vegetation covered the floor with a thick, soft carpet of mold.
Throughout the forest were glittering lights, bright spots, streaks, and luminous patches, where shafts of sunlight, breaking through the roof, were reflected from the underlying foliage as from a multitude of suspended mirrors. On every side was the richest fertility; and, contrastingly, in the prostrate trunks and rotting leaf mold was equal evidence of death and decay. The silence, the gloom, the stillness, the luxuriance were most impressive.
The oval-shaped heads of the trees came close to one another and interlaced their branches, and creepers and bush ropes linked them together to form a sort of …"
7” x 10”, 26 pages, 35 B&W photos
These are pages carefully removed from an actual 1932 magazine.
32K3
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