164 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



tenth of a line into the stone. This black coloration, and 

 the cavities already alluded to, show the former water level 

 of the Orinoco. 



These black cavities may be traced at elevations of from 

 160 to 192 feet above the present level of the river on 

 the rocks of Keri, in the islands of the cataracts; in the 

 gneiss-like hills of Cumadanimari, which extend above the 

 island of Tomo ; and lastly at the mouth of the Jao. Their 

 existence proves, what indeed we learn from all the river- 

 beds of Europe, that those streams which still excite our 

 admiration by their magnitude, are but inconsiderable re- 

 mains of the immense masses of water belonging to a former 

 age. 



These simple facts have not escaped even the rude natives 

 of Guiana. Everywhere the Indians drew our attention to 

 these traces of the ancient water-level. Nay, in a Savannah 

 near Uruana there rises an isolated rock of granite, which, 

 according to the testimony of persons worthy of credit, exhi- 

 bits at an elevation of between 80 and 90 feet, a series of 

 figures of the sun and moon, and of various animals, especially 

 crocodiles and boa-constrictors, graven, almost in rows. At 

 the present day this perpendicular rock, which well deserves 

 the careful examination of future travellers, cannot be ascended 

 without the aid of scaffolding. In a similarly remarkable 

 elevated position, the traveller can trace hieroglyphic characters 

 carved on the mountains of Uruana and Encaramada. 



If the natives are asked how these characters could have 

 been graven there, they answer that it was done in former 

 times, when the waters were so high that their fathers' 

 canoes floated at that elevation. Such lofty condition of the 

 water level must therefore have been coeval with these rude 

 memorials of human skill. It indicates an ancient distribu- 

 tion of land and water over the surface of the globe widely 

 different from that which now exists ; but which must not be 

 confounded with that condition when the primeval vegetation 



