134 TlMEHRI. 



At this upper part of the river, the Kaieteur ravine 

 becomes a very deep, and rather narrow, winding gorge, 

 with the sides on the right bank generally of a very 

 precipitous nature, bare in many parts, and shewing 

 frequent indications of small streams of water trickling 

 down its face. In the wet season, when these streams 

 become high cascades, the view must be considerably 

 more impressive, but the arduous forest walking would 

 then have to be much more frequently resorted to, 

 owing to the greater height of the river. 



After about three hours' walking, we reached the com- 

 paratively still water at the foot of the catara6t, which 

 slopes down direcYly from the edge of the pool into 

 which the water falls. At this halting place we had a 

 very good view of the upper two-thirds of the water- 

 fall, now narrowed to considerably less than one-half 

 the full width of its bed, but pouring a mighty volume of 

 water sheer down from the edge of the immense amphi- 

 theatre, more than 800 feet above. Owing to the low- 

 ness of the river from the long drought, the water fell 

 not as one undivided mass, but broken up by various 

 projections of rock at the edge into a series of seven 

 distindt falls, of which the western sixweresmall, and occu- 

 pied fully one-half of the total width, being dissipated into 

 rain and mist before reaching the bottom, at distances from 

 the top dependent upon the size of each. On the eastern 

 side the great bulk of the water fell as one undivided mass. 



At the eastern edge of that part of the bluff over 

 which the river falls, and which here lies nearly 

 East and West, the great precipice of the amphi- 

 theatre, curves out suddenly in a northerly direction, 

 making a distinct angle with the remaining portion, 



