XXX ITINEKAKY. 



bamboo, we emerge J from the streaming wood iind saw before us the 

 deep gully cat through by the fall of Koraima paru ; here, too, for the 

 first time we could see the sky aud the brilliantly-lighted landscape 

 before us ; other hills, which appeared high enough from the savanna 

 now appeared dwarfed and insignificant. Beyond the village we could 

 see the river of Kukenaam, into which the water of Roraima paru 

 flows, winding away to the south, where, after turning north, it runs 

 into the Caroni and so to the Orinoco, 100 or 150 miles from its mouth. 



Looking into the gully, we could see that, by keeping close to the 

 clifi", a descent of 100 feet and an ascent up a rocky wall, over which 

 water was flowing on the other side, was all that was required of us to 

 overcome what appeax'ed from the distance a formidable obstacle; in 

 fact, so impracticable does it appear, that no one had attempted even 

 to reach this point until Im Thurn and Perkins came in 1884. Schom- 

 burgk, B. Brown, McTurk, Beddam, Whetham, Whitely, Seyell, had 

 all seen the ledge, but decided that it was not worth while making an 

 attempt to ascend by it ; this, combined with the fact that most of the 

 above-mentioned traveller's were short of either boots or food, or both, 

 account, to a great extent, for the top of the mountain remaining un- 

 explored for fifty years after its discovery by Schomburgk. 



On the side on which we descended there were a fair number of 

 bushes and branches by which we could hold on, but on the opposite 

 side the rock was bai-e, with a stream of water running over its full 

 width, and took us some little time to over'come, but once across, we 

 could see our way clearly. 



The extraordinary mountain Roraima, on the confines of British 

 Guiana, near the boundary of Venezuela and Brazil, has long been an 

 object of wonder and speculation. 



Situated away from the beaten track and far from any civilised 

 centre, it remained unknown except to the red man until it was 

 discovered by Sir Robert Schomburgk, whilst he was engaged in 

 making a survey of the Colony in 1841. Since then few white men 

 liave explored the district, but the description and accounts given by 

 them on theii' return have only added to the wonder and mystery by 

 which the place was surrounded. 



No one who read these accounts could fail to have their intei'est 

 awakened. Here was an immense mountain with a towering quad- 

 rangular pediment, whose lofty walls, rising perpendicularly for nearly 

 2000 feet abov^e its slope, had shut ofi" from the rest of the world, 

 presumably from the earliest times, a tract 54 squai-e miles in extent 

 and nearly 9000 feet above the sea-level. What might there be, wliat 

 might there not be on the summit ? Infoiniation gathered from the 

 Indians in the surrounding villages only added to the interest. The 

 mountain was, it was said, not only inaccessible, but jealously guarded 

 by animals such as had been remarkable in the time of Sindbad the 

 Sailor. A huge bird there was that carried away the too-adventurous 

 traveller, or should he by luck escape the eagle eye, he still had to face 

 a terrible serpent of dimensions which can only be imagined. 



Such was the information to be gained from the only people at all 

 familiar with the place, but they lived in a country renowned for its 

 wonders from its earliest discoverv. 'Twas not far south of this that 



