XXXll •ITINEKARV. 



a forest glacis. Tlie glancing rays of the sun struck the red sandstone 

 layers, which shone like glass and stood out in bold and bright relief 

 above their green base. A fly could hardly have rested on the slippery 

 slabs." 



His sentiments on viewing the mountain, to Avhich he here gives 

 utterance, were without doubt those experienced by all who had 

 approached lloraima ; and tlie idea of its inaccessibility could hardly 

 be more definitely expressed than in the statements that " nothing less 

 than a winged Pegasus could expect to attain the summit of the bare 

 red wall," or '* that unless one ascended the mountain by means of 

 a balloon, the question {i. e. of the animal life on the summit) could 

 never be settled.'"' 



And, indeed, for one who has some slight acquaintance with the 

 scene, it is not difficult to imagine the utter hopelessness of making an 

 ascent which seems to have been felt by all the earlier travellers who 

 came within sight of the famous mountain. 



The enormous walls which form the sides of the quadrangular 

 pediment are everywhere equally lofty and precipitous, presenting 

 a facing not less than 30 miles in length. The imagination fails 

 adequately to picture the imposing grandeur of a cliff such as this, 

 raised on its sloping tree-clad pedestal, 4000 feet above the snrroiuiding 

 level — a grandeur that is heightened by the many waterfalls which, 

 starting from the sky-line, leap forth sheer into the forest below to 

 join the headwaters of the Amazon, the Orinoco, or the Essequibo. 

 The Indians were, indeed, happy in their choice of expression when they 

 sang of " Roraima the red rock, the ever-fruitful mother of streams." 



Previous to the actual ascent by Mr. im Thurn, Henry Whitely, 

 the naturalist, seems to have been the only traveller who, after trial, 

 believed in the possibility of i-eaching the summit by means of a ledge 

 on the south-west face. As related by him in the ' Proceedings of the 

 Royal Geographical Society,' vol. vi. 1884, pp. 459-4fi3, Whitely 

 spent several months at Roraima in 1883 collecting specimens of birds, 

 and during this time observed the sloping ledge which at present 

 aflbrds the only practicable means of ascent. 



About halfway up this ledge there is a sudden break which, from 

 below, seems to render all fui-ther advance impossible — and it appears 

 that Schomburgk so regarded it. Whitely, however, essayed the 

 attempt, and but for the fact that the track cut by his Indians did not 

 lead to the real foot of the ledge as he directed, and that a dense mist 

 suddenly enveloped them, there is no doubt but that he Avould have 

 succeeded in reaching the top. From his description and the excellent 

 drawing of this south-west face of Roraima with the broken ledge 

 in situ, which accompanies it (Joe. cit.), there can be no doubt on this 

 point. 



Southern and Perkins in the next year followed more or less in his 

 ti-ack to the bottom of the ledge, which leads diagonally across the 

 face to the summit, and by following it succeeded in ascending the 

 mountain. Unfortunatelv, owing to unfavourable weather, they were 

 unable to spend more than an hour or two on the top, nor were they 

 able subsequently to return. For the first time, however, some idea 

 was gained of the configuration and physical conditions of the summit, 



