150 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [November, 



the boys in hopes the game would pass near me. After a 

 little time we heard a rushing and fearful gnashing of teeth, 

 which made me stand anxiously expecting the animals to 

 appear ; but the sound went further off, and died away at 

 length in the distance. 



The party now appeared, and said that there was a large 

 herd of fine pigs, but that they had got away. They, however, 

 directed the boys to go on with me to the Serra, and they 

 would go again after the herd. We went on accordingly over 

 very rough, uneven ground, now climbing up steep ascents 

 over rotting trunks of fallen trees, now descending into gullies, 

 till at length we reached a curious rock a huge table twenty 

 or thirty feet in diameter, supported on two points only, and 

 forming an excellent cave ; round the outer edge we could 

 stand upright under it, but towards the centre the roof was so 

 low that one could only lie down. The top of this singular 

 rock was nearly flat, and completely covered with forest-trees, 

 and it at first seemed as if their weight must overbalance it 

 from its two small supports ; but the roots of the trees, not 

 finding nourishment enough from the little earth on the top of 

 the rock, ran along it to the edge, and there dropped down 

 vertically and penetrated among the broken fragments below, 

 thus forming a series of columns of various sizes supporting 

 the table all round its outer edge. Here, the boys said, was 

 to be our abode during our stay, though I did not perceive 

 any water near it. Through the trees we could see the moun- 

 tain a quarter or half a mile from us, a bare, perpendicular 

 mass of granite, rising abruptly from the forest to a height of 

 several hundred feet. 



We had hung up our redes and waited about half an hour, 

 when three Indians of our party made their appearance, 

 staggering under the weight of a fine hog they had killed, and 

 had slung on a strong pole. I then found the boys had 

 mistaken our station, which was some distance further on, at 

 the very foot of the Serra, and close to a running stream of 

 water, where was a large roomy cave formed by an immense 

 overhanging rock. Over our heads was growing a forest, and 

 the roots again hung down over the edge, forming a sort of 

 screen to our cave, and the stronger ones serving for posts to 

 hang our redes. Our luggage was soon unpacked, our redes 

 hung, a fire lighted, and the pig taken down to the brook, 



