336 TIMEHRI. 
great difficulty, climbed up. Here I soon found the 
impossibility of getting farther as the cliff rose almost 
perpendicularly and it was utterly beyond the power of 
man to climb such a wall. Seen from such a short dis- — Bt 
tance, it looked black and very porous, scaling off here 
and there in long flakes of about an inch thick. The — 
refle€tion of the light from the hollows thus produced, 
gave the brilliancy to the wall which we had seen at the 
distance when the sun shone. 
The upper edge as seen from this distance was a 
straight horizontal line, with great forks and points of 
the most strange shapes, and the magnificence of the 
scenery was completed by the fall of the Arabo-pu, — 
which, with a thundering roar, fell down fifteen hundred 
feet and disappeared in the thick bush, to afterwards make 
another great leap before hurrying down into the plain. 
Forming the most southern limit of view, rose the 
gigantic obelisk-like rock Ibirima which with its point, 
excavated as it were, overhung in a threatening manner 
the steep mountain declivities. For thousands of years it 
may have been in this position and who can say for how — 
many thousands more it will yet remain. The open 
space between it and the cliff is only a few feet broad 
and can be best seen on the south side of the mountain. 
A magnificent view presented itself to my eyes from 
this stand-point. In the far distance lay before me the zB 
strangely-shaped chain of the Humirida mountains, of a _ 
deep ultramarine colour, the highest summit, that of the _ 
Zabang-tipu being especially noticeable from its bell- — 
shaped form. But what was that lying between these 
mountains and Roraima? Luxuriant savannahs, glorious 
woods, fine shaped hills alternating with beautiful valleys, — 
