ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 163 



of the Essequibo, near .the rapids of Warraputa (Richard Schom- 

 burgk, Reisen in Britisch-Gruiana, th. i. s. 320), were remarked by 

 him to bear a great resemblance to genuine Carib ones in one of 

 the small Virgin Islands (St. John's) ; but notwithstanding the 

 wide extent of the invasions of the Caribs, and the ancient power 

 of this fine race, I cannot believe that all the rock engravings 

 which, as I have said, form an immense belt traversing a great part 

 of South America from west to east *are to be regarded as their 

 work. I am inclined rather to view these remains as traces of an 

 ancient civilization, belonging, perhaps, to an epoch when the 

 tribes whom we now distinguish by various appellations were still 

 unknown. Even the veneration everywhere testified by the Indians 

 of the present day for these rude sculptures of their predecessors, 

 shows .that they have no idea of the execution of similar works. 

 There is another circumstance which should be mentioned : be- 

 tween Encaramada and Caycara, on the banks of the Orinoco, a num- 

 ber of these hieroglyphical figures are sculptured on the face of 

 precipices at a height which could now be reached only by means of 

 extraordinarily high scaffolding. If one asks the natives how these 

 figures can have been cut, they answer, laughing, as if it were a 

 fact of which none but a white man could be ignorant, that " in the 

 days of the great waters their fathers went in canoes at that 

 height." Thus a geological fancy is made to afford an answer to 

 the problem presented by a civilization which has long passed away. 

 Let me be permitted to introduce here a remark which I borrow 

 from a letter addressed to me by the distinguished traveller, Sir 

 Robert Schomburgk. "The hieroglyphical figures are more widely 

 extended than you had, perhaps, supposed. During my expedition, 

 which had for its object the examination of the Corentyn River, I 

 not only observed some colossal figures on the rock of Tkneri (4| 

 N. lat. and 57 \ "W. long.), but I also discovered similar ones near 

 the great cataracts of the Corentyn, in 4 21' 30" N. lat. and 57 

 55' 30" W. long. These figures are executed with much greater 

 care than any which I discovered in Gruiana. Their size is about 

 ten feet, and they appear to represent human figures. The head- 

 dress is extremely remarkable ; it encompasses the head, spreading 

 out considerably in breadth, and is not unlike the halos represented 



