WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 55 



ting every little thing to rights and in its proper 

 place, cannot well be done in less than a day. 



After being night and day in the forest imper- 

 vious to the sun's and moon's rays the sudden 

 transition to light has a fine heart-cheering effect. 

 "Welcome as a lost friend, the solar beam makes 

 the frame rejoice, and with it a thousand enliven- 

 ing thoughts rush at once on the soul, and dis- 

 perse, as a vapour, every sad and sorrowful idea 

 which the deep gloom had helped to collect there. 

 In coming out of tlie woods, you see the western 

 bank of the Essequibo before you, low and flat. 

 Here the river is two-thirds as broad as the Dem- 

 erara at Stabroek. 



To the northward there is a hill higher than any 

 in the Demerara; and in the south-south-west 

 quarter a mountain. It is far away, and appears 

 like a bluish cloud in the horizon. There is not 

 the least opening on either side. Hills, valleys, 

 and lowlands, are all linked together by a chain of 

 forest. Ascend the highest mountain, climb the 

 loftiest tree, as far as the eye can extend, which- 

 ever way it directs itself, all is luxuriant and un- 

 broken forest. 



In about nine or ten hours from this, you get 

 to an Indian habitation of three huts, on the point 

 of an island. It is said that a Dutch post once 

 stood here. But there is not the smallest vestige 

 of it remaining, and, except that the trees appear 

 younger than those on the other islands, which 

 shows that the place has been cleared some time 

 or other, there is no mark left by which you can 

 conjecture that ever this was a post. 



The many islands which you meet with in the 



