Along the Essequebo and Potaro. 141 



actually within the width of the foaming mass, and was 

 able to gaze downwards at the wild scene, and outwards 

 upon the marvellous panorama spread out below, away 

 as far as the eye could reach. Below, a splendid rain- 

 bow, lying like a gorgeous band upon the mist and vapour, 

 girdled the foot of the fall, and heightened the magnifi- 

 cence of the scene. 



Gradually the eye takes in the individual parts that 

 make up the special beauty of the view, and then one 

 realises its perfect sublimity. The great foaming mass 

 of falling water; the cavernous recess behind, with its 

 passing clouds of vapour, blown out by the wind ; the 

 pool below, into which the water thunders, appearing 

 quite small and undisturbed; the green-covered banks 

 on either side, broken by the cataract of stones in the 

 middle and by the still water below; the forming and 

 fading masses of vapour, barred by the great arch of 

 the rainbow, crossing pool and bank and precipice; the 

 immense rocky bluff of the wide amphitheatre, passing 

 on each side into dense forest; the open track of the 

 valley below, with silvery stretches of water, here and 

 there, amongst the green, marking the course of the 

 river; and the immense forest-clad plain, shut in and 

 broken up by mountain beyond mountain, and reaching 

 away in the distance to the blue, cloud-barred canopy 

 of the sky: these are' but the separate points that the 

 eye feeds upon — points that go to form the one indes- 

 cribable picture that holds the senses enthralled the 

 more one gazes. 



On looking down on the rocky bed of the cataract 

 that leads from the pool to the still water below, we 

 could not restrain a smile in observing how short and 



