204 



MAJESTIC SCENERY. 



On the 12th they set off at four in the morning 

 The Indians rowed twelve hours and a half without 

 mtermission, during which time they took no other 

 nourishment than cassava and plantains. The bed 

 of the river, to the length of 1280 yards, was full of 

 granite rocks, the channels between which were 

 often very narrow, insomuch that the canoe was 

 sometimes jammed in between two blocks. When 

 the current was too strong the sailors leaped out and 

 Avarped the boat along. The rocks were of all di- 

 mensions, rounded, very dark, ghjssv like lead, and 

 destitute of vegetation. No crocodiles were seen 

 in these rapids. The left bank of the Orinoco, from 

 Cabruto to the mouth of the Rio Serianico, a dis- 

 tance of nearly two degrees of latitude, is entirely 

 uninhabited ; but to the westward of these rapids 

 an enterprising individual, Don Fehx Relinchon, had 

 formed a village of Jaruro and Otomac Indians. At 

 nine in the morning they arrived at the mouth of 

 the Meta, which, next to the Guaviare, is the largest 

 river that joins the Orinoco. At the union of these 

 streams the scenery is of a very impressive charac- 

 ter. Solitary peaks rise on the eastern side, appear- 

 ing in the distance like ruined castles, while vast 

 sandy shores intervene between the bank and the 

 forests. They passed two hours on a large rock in 

 the middle of the Orinoco, upon which Humboldt 



scope, and no cause could be as.signed for ihe plienomenon, unless Ihe 

 suns rays, "althat inument impinging in all ll)eir glory on every point 

 and peak ol the snowy heights," hnd .some sliare " in vibratin" these 

 n)Ountain-chords."-JV 3/. Mag. xx.x. 341. The granite sia.ueo? Mem! 

 non IS well known to have emitted suunds when the morninir beams 

 darted upon it; and MM. Jomard, Jollois, and Devilliers heard^a noise 

 resembling that o( ihe breaking of a string, which procee.ied at sunrise 

 trom a monument of granite situated near the centre of the spot on 

 which .Elands the palace of Carnac. Singular sounds have been heard 

 Jrom Ihe iiiierior of a mountain near Tor, in Arabia Petisa They are 

 familiartothe iialives, who ascribe them to a convent of monks miracu- 

 lously preserved under ground, and were heard by M. Seeizen' and Mr 

 Oray, the only European travellers who have visited the place. For ati 

 account of these curious phenomena, the reader msv be referred to Dr 

 Brewater's Letters on Kalurol Magic, forming Ko. L. of the Family 



