326 TIMEHRI. 
tocome. I should have liked very much to have had some * 
of the Arekuna girls among my followers, but the chief 
told me they had refused for fear of the cold nights on 
the mountain and superstitious notions, it therefore an 
resulted that the wife of JOHN the hunter was the only 
female among my attendants. . i 
Cautiously we passed over the Araba-pu, close to the 
edge of the water-fall, with thick sticks in both hands to 
prevent our feet from slipping on the smooth slimy 
jasper rocks of the river-bed and save us from shooting _ 
down the cascade. The path then went along the bank, 
and up a very steep ascent, on the top of which was an 
elevated savannah covered with very sharp small pieces — 
of jasper which soon played havoc with my sandals; _ 
luckily, however, I had a second pair with me. The 
savannah was barren to the highest degree, hardly even 
a small plant being visible until after two hours we 
arrived at a brook which was a source of life to fringes 
of vegetation. Onits banks stood thick stems of the 
handsome Alsophila villosa, covered with dense brown 
hair and short stiff leathery fans by which this fine plant, 
which grows also on the southern slopes of the Andes in 
Venezuela, gets the appearance of a Cycas_ revoluta 
rather than a tree fern. Beside these grew a multitude 
of Lomaria Schomburgkii decorated with similar stems 
and tans, but smaller in size. 
One party of twelve Indians remained behind here to 
set fire to a wide circuit of the Savannah as soon as we 
should be a good distance away, and then hunt and kill ~ 
the deer which would be thus driven out. Meanwhile 4 
we climbed the steep slopes which were covered with . 
savannah plants. Only the deep gorges which descend 
