134 tJP THE OEINOCO. 



an adjoining cliff, near its summit, we had pointed out to 

 us the entrance of a dark cavern ; its height up the rocky 

 "wall renders it inaccessible, but, according to a legend, 

 as given us by our patron, a passage to it was discovered 

 by a padre, who was accustomed to resort thither. He 

 died without divulging the mystic way to the gloomy re- 

 cess ; and it is said that his spirit now frequents the place. 

 The forbidding aspect of the jagged cliff and its wild sur- 

 roundings make it appear as though it might, indeed, be 

 a favorite haunt for wandering spirits. 



Not far from here a violent tempest struck our vessel, 

 and produced a heavy sea that nearly shipwrecked us be- 

 fore we could gain the shore, which being reached, we 

 hastily unloaded our stores, for our buco seemed destined 

 to be dashed to pieces, tlie high bank preventing us from 

 drawing it upon land. The peaks of the granitic hills 

 were wrapped in one vivid sheet of flame, while peals of 

 thunder, of a nature well calculated to disturb the rest of 

 the good jjadre, rattled along the cliffs. 



Upon the following day we passed without difficulty 

 the Maudal de Marimara. Here upon the east bank rises 

 a solid mountain of granite, called Pledra de 3farimara, 

 its river-front abrupt and without a trace of soil. Sepa- 

 rated from this huge rock by a beautiful little inlet upon 

 the south is another granitic pile, which bears the name 

 of La Piedra del Zamuro, the rock of the zamuro.* Upon 

 its walls we could distinctly trace the high-water marks, 

 showing that the river had fallen sixteen feet, about half 

 its usual rise. Upon the oj^jDosite side of the river was 

 the immense rock, Piedra del Tlgre, which, sloping up 

 gradually from the stream, jiresented a favorable place for 

 refection and rest, and accordingly we drew to shore. 

 There is a singular phenomenon connected with these rocks 

 of Piedra del Tlgre^ which is also peculiar to others upon 



* Cathartes atratus. 



