text:  In front and as far as could be seen lay the prairie covered with its waving grass and many-coloured flowers behind the dwelling arose the cluster of forest trees in all their primeval majesty laced and bound together by an infinity of wild vines which shot their tendrils and clinging branches hundreds of feet upwards to the very top of the trees embracing and covering the whole island with a green network and converting it into an immense bower of vine leaves which would have been no unsuitable abode for Bacchus and his train