110 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



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 unbroken 

 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 con- 

 jecture that ever this was a post. 



The many islands which you meet with in the way, 

 enliven and change the scene, by the avenues which they 

 make, which look like the mouths of other rivers, and 

 break that long-extended sameness which is seen in the 

 Demerara, 



Proceeding onwards, you get to the falls and rapids. In 

 the rainy season they are very tedious to pass, and often 

 stop your course. In the dry season, by stepping from 

 rock to rock, the Indians soon manage to get a canoe over 

 them. But when the river is swollen, as it was in May, 

 1812, it is then a difficult task, and often a dangerous one 

 too. At that time many of the islands were overflowed, 

 the rocks covered, and the lower branches of the trees in 

 the water. Sometimes the Indians were obliged to take 

 everything out of the canoe, cut a passage through the 

 branches, which hung over into the river, and then drag 

 up the canoe by main force. 



At one place, the falls form an oblique line quite across 



