VI ITINERARY. 



cross by ordinary channels — it may be in low-lying valleys or across 

 ■wide torrential mountain streams, necessitating detours of considerable 

 length from the direct route, and often of considerable difficulty. As 

 a matter of fact, so clearly recognised are the difficulties of such travel 

 in the wet seasons, and so great the drawbacks in the collection and 

 preservation of specimens, that such times are always avoided unless 

 some special object be in view. 



Even along the great rivers, expeditions in such seasons are by no 

 means advisable, as will have been seen from the experiences of the 

 first in 1894, as narrated by McDonnell in Vol. I. Unfortunately, our 

 party proved then to be much too large in every way as compared with 

 the boatmen obtainable, and the boats were thus undermanned; and as 

 the wet season was exceptionally heavy and long-continued, everything 

 was against us. The banks of the rivers were mostly flooded, and the 

 current extremely rapid ; and the whole journey was therefore not 

 only one of excessive labour, continual delays, and great inconvenience, 

 but of frequent danger, especially in the rapids and falls, where at 

 times we narrowly escaped catastrophe. And on reaching the great 

 savannahs, we found that, owing to the floods, the special object for 

 which the trip had been organized — namely, the collection of specimens 

 of the great caiman alligator, and the huge Arapaima fish, and other 

 such characteristic forms — to be quite unattainable at the time. Equally 

 out of question, at that time, were attempts to explore the Kanuku 

 range of the savannah mountains, to procure the practically unknown 

 so-called Warracaba tigers and the materials used by the peaimen 

 (medicine-men) of the Makushi Indian tribe in the preparation of the 

 deadly Urali poison — materials that were wanted for the chemical and 

 physiological determination of the essential constituents, which might 

 be of great use in Medicine. These objects, with others, were accom- 

 plished later; but, in the meantime, the expedition to Roraima, which 

 had previously been but a side issue of the trip, dependent on time and 

 the finding of a sufficient number of carriers, became the njost practi- 

 cable feature, though no special preparation had been made for it 

 before starting from the coast. 



The long dry weather in the latter part of the year affords in every 

 way the best chances of success in the collection and preparation of 

 specimens of all sorts, as well as for convenience of travelling ; and 

 the tendency has been therefore general to make such expeditions at 

 this time. This, in the main, is the explanation of the state of things 

 referred to by Mr. Burkhill in his Introduction to the Eeport on the 

 two Botanical Collections made by us at Roraima (1894, 1898) : — 



" It is unfortunate that all the plants collected on the upper parts of 

 Roraima have been gathered in the last three months of the year. 

 February brings to Roraima a few bare trees (Appun, ' Unten den 

 Tropen,' ii. p. 226); March brings copious Gesnerads into flower, at 

 least at the foot of the mountain (Boddam-Whetham, 'Roraima;') 

 and April is a month producing more flowers than November (Siedel, 

 fide im Thurn in IVans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2. ii. p. 250); but I am 

 unable to record anything collected above 5,000 feet during these 

 months." (Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2. vi. pt. L p. 8.) 



The remark may be allowed here that, as of the four great groups of 



