ITINERAEY. XXXV 



extremely kind in their attentions, as they were also as regards our 

 future welfare at Roraima ; and they were quite concerned in telling 

 of an unpleasant report that had got spread over the district that tlieie 

 had been a serious epidemic at Roraima, and that everybody had either 

 died or gone away. We wondered whether perhaps small-pox, whicli 

 is so deadly among the natives, had been brought from Venezuela or 

 Brazil, but hoped that the report was not true. 



From this point our track necessarily had to cross some high and 

 steep spurs of tlie various mountains of the Roraima group, and two of 

 them indeed pi'oved to be, as regards steepness, on the whole worse 

 than any yet met with — one particularly being also a very long and 

 trying ordeal. Luckily, however, there were no sheer escarpments, to 

 which the one over the Mazaruni had so closely approached. Various 

 small patches of savannahs, with very rough and pebbly tracks, now 

 lay between the forests, which were thicker along numerous rocky 

 channels, where there was little water, or whex'e a stream was almost 

 lost amid huge boulders; and it was with gi-eat joy that we at last 

 came out. on continuous savannah, and from a high elevation liad the 

 great range of mountains in full view — the vertical-walled Roraima 

 before us, with other smaller Roraimas on the right : the rugged pile 

 of Marima behind; and tlie beautiful Sun Mountain, with its peaked 

 dome, its terrace'l slopes and sharp edges, with varying light and shade 

 all over it, away on our left: and far away in the blue distance the 

 high plateaux of Brazil. No wondei- if, even with aching feet, our step 

 was more elastic. We were done with the dreary forest : the beautiful 

 sunlight was over all, and fragrant bi'eezes refreshed us; and, more 

 pleasing than all beside, our goal was close at hand ! 



The eastern view of the mountain throws into very bold prominence 

 the great rounded ridge running from the south-eastern angle of the 

 wall ; and this is increased as one descends the outstamling ridges, and 

 approaching nearer is able to realise somewhat better the gigantic 

 pro[)ortions. The track is by no means good in these open savannwhs, 

 being very lough and irregular and pebbly, and made worse at the 

 sides by the mop-like heads of an Eriocaulon, mostly hard and bare on 

 the shrivelled or dead plants. It leads across and along a succession of 

 ridges and valleys, in which at times one has to cross streams with 

 rocky channels or even half -swampy stretches, until rounding the great 

 l)OKS of the angle, it joins the southern trail by which we had tiuvelled 

 on the first journey. 



One rather large stream, evidently running to tho- Kotinga, and 

 which we had crossed where it was shallowest, over a ver^' smooth 

 slippery be<l. almost at the edge of some high falls, was noteworthy 

 from tlie .sections of the red jasperous rock, which is jointed and fitted 

 like neat masonry. There are many other and smalU-r streams of this 

 character in the district, and at times the rock is yellowish-gi-een, not 

 red. Numbers of filmy ferns and other small plants grew in the 

 crevices and greatly heightened the wall-like appcaxance. 



Over these extensive savannah lands, animal life was not al)undant. 

 Some hawks ro.se at times in tho distance or sailed overheatl, all 

 too far to be certain of the species, except the little kestrel or 

 windhover, which was often close at hand, either on the trees where 



