THE "ROOF" OF THE FOREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue LXI, 12 July 1930, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE "ROOF" OF THE FOREST.

ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE.

EXPLORERS' FIND,

Descriptions of strange life on the "roof" of tropical forests have been given by Major R. W. Kingston, leader of the Oxford biological expedition to British Guiana, recently returned from South America.

"Up to the present," said Major Hing' ston, "naturalists have worked only on the floor of the dense tropical jungles. Of the animals, plants, insects, living in the almost solid canopy above they have known practically nothing. Our expedition camped in a patch of primeval forest on the'banks of Moraballi River, a' tributary of Essequibo, practically on the Equator. This forest—a dense assemblage of tall, straight trees—has stood for centuries. For the first 78 feet the tree trunks are branchless, but above that the foliage spreads out and intertwines to form a solid roof.

"jSFever can the sun penetrate to that dismal darkness. But 130 feet above the floor of the forest on this canopy Ave found an amazing contrast. We looked out on a green plain,raised and lowered into hills arid valleys. There was plenty of gay colour, every shade of green represented, and many of the young leaves were yellow and copper red. Beautiful flowers abounded and on every side, both in the canopy itself and in the air above, there was abundance of animal life."

The expedition collected thousands of animals, birds, insects and plants which prove, according to Major Kingston, that the roof of the tropical forest is filled with animal life quite different from that on the forest floor beneath.