Shans at home . d condition. The sun hardly penetrates through thetangle of creepers, many of which die down duringthe cold and rainless winter months, and, falling onthe earth, prevent the ground from drying. At thisseason th,e damp from the soaking earth rises likesteam during the heat of the day; the jungle pathsare strewn with dead branches, which, heavy withmoisture, have broken off and fallen down fromthe trees overhead. There is no primeval forest;a few trees—such as those of the indiarubber family,also teak, oak, and chestnut—are long-lived; manythat are soft-wooded grow rapidly, and s
Shans at home . d condition. The sun hardly penetrates through thetangle of creepers, many of which die down duringthe cold and rainless winter months, and, falling onthe earth, prevent the ground from drying. At thisseason th,e damp from the soaking earth rises likesteam during the heat of the day; the jungle pathsare strewn with dead branches, which, heavy withmoisture, have broken off and fallen down fromthe trees overhead. There is no primeval forest;a few trees—such as those of the indiarubber family,also teak, oak, and chestnut—are long-lived; manythat are soft-wooded grow rapidly, and soon becomecovered with a thick mantle of ferns and lichen whichfind easy foothold on the trunks and branches. Amultitude of insects make their homes under theshelter of these plants, and they bore into and spoilthe bark of the trees. The creepers, climbing frombranch to branch, coiling like great snakes round thetrunks, crush the life out of the trees that supportthem; white ants come in armies to any rotten. IN THE JUNGLE. 1. 162] WILD ANIMALS 163 wood; they build their tunnels all over dead trees, alsoundermining them ; the first wind-storm blows themdo^yn, and the creepers fall with them. Other treesspring up, to be in turn smothered with creepers ; theytoo live their short life and then die. Where the Kachins have cut down and burnt theforest, to make clearings for their hill-rice—a kindthat can be grown without irrigation—there are longstretches of naked hill-slopes; here and there in theuplands are small valleys, where the streams aredammed and rice is cultivated, as on the plains. Nearthe larger bridle-paths—leading from one village toanother—may sometimes be found monasteries, alsozayats for the use of travellers. In passing through the country it is not easy torealise that it is the home of many fierce wild tigers and leopards are rarely seen, the latterare innumerable, and are almost more dreaded thantigers. They seldom attack people, but ea
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