ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 197 



Negro, and the Cassiquiare. In this district are found rocks 

 of granite and of syenite, covered, like those of Caicara and 

 Uruana, with colossal symbolical figures of crocodiles and 

 tigers, and drawings of household utensils, and of the sun and 

 inoon. At the present time this remote corner of the earth 

 is entirely without human inhabitants, throughout an extent 

 of more than 8000 square geographical miles. The tribes 

 nearest to its boundaries are wandering naked savages, in 

 the lowest stage of human existence, and far removed from 

 any thoughts of carving hieroglyphics on rocks. One may 

 trace in South America an entire zone, extending through 

 more than eight degrees of longitude, of rocks so orna- 

 mented; viz. from the Rupuniri, Essequibo, and the 

 mountains of Pacaraima, to the banks of the Orinoco and 

 of the Yupura. These carvings may belong to very 

 different epochs, for Sir Robert Schornburgk even found 

 on the Eio Negro representations of a Spanish galiot 

 (Eeisen in Guiana und am Orinoko, tibersetzt von Otto 

 Schornburgk, 1841, S. 500), which must have been of a 

 later date than the beginning of the 16th century; and this 

 in a wilderness where -the natives were probably as rude 

 then as at the present time. But it must not be forgotten 

 that, as I have elsewhere noticed, nations of very different 

 descent, when in a similar uncivilized state, having the same 

 disposition to simplify and generalise outlines, and being 

 impelled by inherent mental dispositions to form rhythmical 

 repetitions and series, may be led to produce similar signs 

 and symbols. (Compare Relation hist. T. ii. p. 589, 

 and Martius liber die Physionomie des Pflanzeureichs in 

 Brasilien, 1824, S. 14.) 



