202 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



for its object the examination of the Corentyn River, I not 

 only observed some colossal figures on the rock of Timeri 

 (4J- N. lat. and 57J- W. long.), but I also discovered 

 similar ones near the great cataracts of the Corentyn, in 

 4 21' 30" N. lat. and 57 55' 30" W. long. These 

 figures are executed with much greater care than any which 

 I discovered in Guiana. Their size is about ten feet, and 

 they appear to represent human figures. The head-dress is 

 extremely remarkable ; it encompasses the head, spreading 

 out considerably in breadth, and is not unlike the halos 

 represented in paintings as surrounding the heads of Saints 

 and Sacred Persons. I have left my drawings of these 

 figures in the colony, but I hope some day to be able to 

 lay them all before the public. I saw ruder figures on the 

 Cuyuwini, a river which empties itself into the Essequibo 

 in latitude 2 16' N., entering it from the north-west; and 

 I have since seen similar figures on the Essequibo itself in 

 1 40' N. lat. These figures extend, therefore, as ascer- 

 tained by actual observation, from 7 10' to 1 40' N. lat., 

 and from 57 30'- to 66 30' W. long. Thus the' 

 zone of pictured rocks extends, so far as it has been at 

 present examined, over a space of 192000 square geogra- 

 phical miles, comprising the basins of the Corentyn, the 

 Essequibo, and the Orinoco ; a circumstance from which 

 we may form some inferences respecting the former amount 

 of population in this part of the continent/' 



Other remarkable remains of a degree of civilisation which 

 no longer exists, are the granite vases with graceful labyrin- 

 thine ornaments, and the earthen masks resembling Roman 



