17G SINGULAR MOUNTAIN. 



by the Gruaricoto Indians on the left bank of the Orinoco, 

 and then we advanced straight toward the south. The river, 

 is so broad that the mountains of Encaramada appear to ri ..TO 

 from the water, as if seen above the horizon of the sea. They 

 form a continued chain from east to wesu. These mountains 

 are composed of enormous blocks of granite, cleft and piled 

 one upon another. Their division into blocks is the effect 

 of decomposition. What contributes above all to embellish 

 the scene at Encaramada is the luxuriance of vegetation 

 that covers the sides of the rocks, leaving bare only their 

 rOunded summits. They look like ancient ruins rising in 

 the midst of a forest. The mountain immediately at the 

 back of the Mission, the Tepupano* of the Tamanac Indians, 

 is terminated by three enormous granitic cylinders, two of 

 which are inclined, while the third, though worn at its base, 

 and more than eighty feet high, has preserved a vertical 

 position. This rock, which calls to mind the form of the 

 Schnarcher in the Hartz mountains, or that of the Organs 

 of Actopan in Mexico,t composed formerly a part of tho 

 rounded summit of the mountain. In every climate, un- 

 stratified granite separates by decomposition into blocks of 

 prismatic, cylindric, or columnar figures. 



Opposite the shore of the Gluaricotos, we drew near 

 another heap of rocks, which is very low, and three or four 

 toises long. It rises in the midst of the plain, and has less 

 resemblance to a tumulus than to those masses of granitic 

 stone, which in North Holland and Germany bear the name 

 of kunenbette, beds (or tombs) of heroes. The shore, at this 



Eart of the Orinoco, is no longer of pure and quartzose sand ; 

 ut is composed of clay and spangles of mica, deposited in 

 very thin strata, and generally at an inclination of forty or 

 fifty degrees. It looks like decomposed mica-slate. This 

 change in the geological configuration of the shore extends 



* Tepu-pano, 'place of stones,' in which we recognize tepu 'stone, 

 rock,' as in tepu-iri ' mountain.' We here perceive that Lesgian Oigour- 

 Tartar root tep ' stone* (found in America among the Americans, in 

 teptl: among the Caribs, in tebou; among the Tamanacs, in tepuiri) ; 

 a striking analogy between the languages of Caucasus and Upper Asia 

 and those of the banks of the Orinoco. 



f* In Captain Tuckey's Voyage on the river Congo, we find repre- 

 sented a granitic rock, Taddi Ensazi, which bears a striking resemblance 

 to the mountain of Encaramada. 



