170 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



had repeatedly ventured to bathe in this portion of the 

 river. 



Meanwhile our anxiety increased every moment, lest, 

 drenched as we were and deafened by the thundering roar of 

 the falling waters, we should be compelled to spend the long 

 tropical night in the midst of the Raudal. At length, however, 

 the Indians made their appearance with our canoe. Their 

 delay had been occasioned by the inaccessibility of the steps 

 they had to descend, owing to the low state of the water; 

 which had obliged them to seek in the labyrinth of channels 

 a more practicable passage. 



Near the southern entrance of the Raudal of Atures, on the 

 right bank of the river, lies the cavern of Ataruipe, so 

 celebrated among the Indians. The surrounding scenery has 

 a grand and solemn character, which seems to mark it as a 

 national burial-place. With difficulty, and not without danger 

 of being precipitated into the depths below, we clambered 

 a steep and perfectly bare granite rock, on whose smooth 

 surface it would be hardly possible to keep one's footing were 

 it not for large crystals of feldspar, which, defying the action 

 of weather, project an inch or more from the mass. 



On gaining the summit, a wide prospect of the surrounding 

 country astonishes the beholder. From the foaming bed of 

 the river rise hills richly crowned with woods, while beyond 

 its western bank the eye rests on the boundless Savannah 

 of the Meta. On the horizon loom like threatening clouds 

 the mountains of Uniama. Such is the distant view; but 

 immediately around all is desolate and contracted. In the 

 deep ravines of the valley moves no living thing save where 

 the vulture and the whirring goat-sucker wing their lonely 

 way, their heavy shadows gleaming fitfully past the barren 

 rock. 



The cauldron-shaped valley is encompassed by mountains, 

 whose rounded summits bear huge granite boulders, measuring 

 from 40 to more than 50 feet in diameter. They appear 



