Along the Essequebo and Potaro. 133 



us. Here there is no track as there is to the top of 

 the falls, but by following the latter track for a short 

 distance, and then reaching the riverside by means of 

 one of the flat-bedded creeks that flow down to it, one is 

 able to walk nearly the whole distance along the bank 

 without any greater difficulty than that caused by stepping 

 or jumping, almost continuously, from boulder to boulder, 

 which after a time, however, becomes extremely tiresome. 

 At times a little wading in the water is advisable in 

 order to get round some of the more formidable rocks. 



The arduousness of this journey really begins, when, 

 towards the upper catarafts, immense boulders with pre- 

 cipitous sides abut on the river, and render it impossible 

 to pass round except through the forest, where, on 

 a steep incline, instead of an ordinary soil, the ground- 

 work consists of masses of sandstone of all shapes and 

 sizes, more or less disintegrated and packed together, 

 and usually covered with a treacherous layer of decayed 

 vegetable matter, above which plants of all sorts, but 

 chiefly creepers, spread themselves under the forest shade. 

 The walking in such places can be better imagined than 

 described, where climbing by meansof rootsandbushropes, 

 slipping and sliding, and sinking in between rocks, was the 

 order of procession. A gun that I carried suffered some- 

 what from the rough handling of the rocks ; but this was 

 nothing, I have since heard, compared with what other 

 guns had suffered before. With the exception of a few 

 wood-pigeons and bush-shrikes, there was nothing to 

 shoot, and the gun after all was but a useless encumbrance. 

 In one of Mr. C. B. Brown's trips, a large labarria (Trigo- 

 nocephalus atrox) was met with and killed among these 

 rocks, but we encountered none of these creatures. 



