It shone on majestic fern-trees, on the fragile
Polypodium tamariscinum, which clung tremblingly to the branches of
the ohia, on the beautiful lygodium, which adorned the uncouth trunk
of the breadfruit; on shining banana leaves and glossy trailing
yams; on gigantic lianas, which, climbing to the tops of the largest
trees, descended in vast festoons, passing from tree to tree, and
interlacing the forest with a living network; and on lycopodiums of
every kind, from those which wrapped the rocks in feathery green to
others hardly distinguishable from ferns. But there were twilight
depths too, where no sunlight penetrated the leafy gloom, damp and
cool: dreamy shades, in which the music of the water was all too
sweet, and the loveliness too entrancing, creating that sadness,
hardly "akin to pain," which is latent in all intense enjoyment.
Here and there a tree had fallen across the river, from which grew
upwards and trailed downwards, fairy-like, semi-transparent mosses
and ferns, all glittering with moisture and sunshine, and now and
then a scarlet tropic bird heightened the effect by the flash of his
plumage.
After an hour of wading we emerged into broad sunny daylight at the
home of the five cascades, which fall from a semicircular precipice
into three basins.
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