April $o, 1 88 5 J 



NATURE 



609 



that portion of the mountain, but the varieties of ferns are 

 very numerous and beautiful, varying from small filmy to 

 tall tree ferns, some 20 to 30 feet in height ; but the plant 

 that seemed to awaken for the time as much interest with 

 us as any other, was the Rubus Schomburgkii, or Roraima 

 blackberry, which greatly resembles the English bramble ; 

 we gathered several bunches of the fruit, which possibly 

 does get sweet, but none of those we obtained were at all 

 eatable. 



From the portion of the cliff we reached we had a good 

 view of the ledge we had seen on the 5th, and, though 



Fig. 3. — Scene on top of Roraima. 



partially obscured by the intervening bush, it seemed 

 quite easy of ascent. 



The height we reached this day was 7350 feet, deter- 

 mined by boiling-point thermometer, and it took us three 

 and three-quarter hours to return to our hut, a distance of 

 about two and a half miles, as we frequently stopped to 

 collect ferns and other plants on our way. 



On the 1 ith we ordered the Arecunas to cut a path to 

 the foot of the ledge from the edge of the savannah, and if 

 possible to continue it as far as the summit. After a day's 



work they returned, saying they had finished the road, but 

 we afterwards found they had left off from fear of Maku- 

 naima, the great spirit, just at the point where the ledge 

 joins the upper sloping portion of the mountain. This 

 was on the 14th, when we reached 7756 feet above sea- 

 level, and found our way suddenly barred by a precipice 

 of 120 feet. A heavy mist, too, arose, and it became 

 bitterly cold, with the rain falling in torrents, which 

 rendered our return journey dangerous, and the path 

 slippery and muddy. 



The next few days were occupied in surveying the 

 country around the mountain and preserving plants ; it 

 was still too wet and slippery to enable us to make any 

 further attempt on the mountain, but, learning from Simon, 

 the Arecuna chief of Toroiking, that the rainy season was 

 about setting in, we determined to make use of the first 

 fine morning we might have ; and on December 18, which 

 dawned most auspiciously for us, we left our house after 

 an early breakfast at 7 a.m., reaching the cliff at 8.30, 

 where we waited for about half an hour, and then set for- 

 ward along the ledge, the path keeping much the same 

 the whole way over rocks and roots and trunks of trees, 

 and sometimes along the slippery leaning stems of the 

 trees, using our hands and knees for some portion of the 

 way. 



The Arecunas we had with us hung back when we got 

 thus far, and for a long while would not proceed, until, by 

 dint of persuasion and the promise of a taste of ardent 

 spirits, we prevailed on them to accompany us ; we had, 

 however, to send one of the men from the Pomeron, a 

 half Negro, half Indian, to go first and lead the way, 

 cutting a path as he went on. In this way we reached 

 the waterfall, which to our great surprise we found ex- 

 tremely easy to pass, as the ledge was not cut away by 

 the action of the water falling on it, and fortunately there 

 was very little water coming over, being more like a very 

 heavy shower, which wet us to the skin immediately. The 

 foothold around the spot was extremely precarious, being 

 worn quite smooth and slippery by the constant moisture 

 and falling water. 



From this fall to the top the last portion of the ledge 

 slopes at an angle of 30 , and is in places quite twenty or 

 more yards in width ; it is covered by a dense growth of 

 moss, and in spots tall coarse grass, which gives way here 

 and there to flowering plants and small shrubs. Of the 

 flowers one in particular, a species of heath, took our 

 fancy by its dark pink blossoms of six petals, about the 

 size of a halfpenny, which lay in quantities along our 

 path. 



So occupied were we in securing each new treasure 

 that we had almost gained the top before being aware of 

 it, for near the summit the ledge loses its steepness and 

 is, so to speak, merged into the top itself. 



A curious sight met our eager gaze as we passed the 

 boundary line of the unknown — on all sides were grouped 

 rocks of every shape unimaginable, weird, strange, and 

 fantastic, first a row of huge oblong stones that looked 

 like rude cannon placed there to guard the approach ; 

 further on another rock like a giant's umbrella on a short 

 thick stem of about four or five feet in height, and others 

 like miniature castles and ruins of old churches, leaning 

 so much that had they not been solidly connected por- 

 tions of the enormous sandstone bed, they would have 

 fallen. We saw no lake, however, but several pools of 

 water here and there. The vegetation on the summit was 

 extremely scanty and insignificant. There being no trees, 

 only small bushes from three to six feet in height, growing 

 at long intervals and, with the exception of a few scrubby 

 orchids, two species of thick-leaved ferns and a variety of 

 the red Utricularia from below, there was no other plant 

 there, owing, no doubt, to the absence of soil : for it is 

 not possible for earth to collect on the summit, as it would 

 be almost immediately carried over by the rain-water 

 which finds its way over the edge of the enormous cliff 



