ITINERAEY. XXlll 



At a first glance it didn't seem possible for anybody to go down such 

 a place, for there did not appear to be anything to go down on. Par 

 down was a very deep valley, which we knew to be that of the Upper 

 Mazaruni. Some hundreds of feet below us were the tops of trees, 

 clearly high forest from their spread and extent. But between us and 

 these there was, or seemed to be,.nothing but a practically sheer descent, 

 with some small scattered trees and bushes clinging to the cliii'. At 

 the very top there was bare rock, mvich weathered, with some projecting 

 roots growing across from the trees on each side. My first impression 

 was that there had been a land-slide, and I turned to the guide with 

 a. halting inquiry — "Tierung?" (if there was another way); "Kanneh, 

 chenie" (no, this was the one), he said. 



Thoughts pass quickly through one's mind at such times ; and for a 

 moment they were on Merume and Barrington Brown and the bush- 

 rope ladders down the vertical cliflfe, and then they were on McOonnell. 

 It was bad enough for me, but worse for him, for he was a very tall, 

 though not stout, man. Until Roraima, he had always thought he 

 couldn't face great clifls without a feeling of giddiness, yet he had been 

 four times up and down that mountain on our first journey. But in a 

 way, this was worse than anything at Koraima as far as I could see 

 down the top distance. There it had been a very long sloping ledge, 

 very steeply broken in parts, but broad enough that one could creep on 

 all fours. Here there appeared to be nothing but a series of irregular 

 roots and small trees, with broken rocky ledges, down an almost vertical 

 drop of apparently several hundred feet. Still there was nothing to be 

 done but to brace oneself for it. 



Meanwhile, the guides had let down their baskets, examining their 

 bands and strings, I imagine as an example to our people, for they 

 must have seen to their baskets earlier, knowing what was coming. 

 Our men did the same. And then the guides turned round at the top, 

 load outwards, and began descending backwards as down a ladder, 

 almost straight at first, slowly by means of the roots, and then later 

 quicker by roots, saplings, and rocky projections, in a sort of zig-zag, 

 where the cliff was clearly not so steep. Spme of our people, probably 

 the more experienced climbers, went directly after this, and we 

 watched them safely to the same point; and then Ritchie's wife swung 

 over with what was probably the biggest, if not the heaviest, load of all, 

 Ritchie following her at once. Then we faced the ordeal; for it 

 seemed as though the others were waiting on us. 



It was certainly a very trying experience, but there was no time to 

 think about it, the whole attention being given to a secure grip with 

 the hands, and then with a half-side lookj^'not down but in, to the cliff 

 to make sure of secure footing. It would have been awful to have 

 looked right down, but even with the half-glance Ritchie was in view 

 just below. There were more roots than we had noticed, coming from 

 trees at the sides, and the zig-zag was wider, with many rocky pro- 

 jections, bound in between the roots, preventing any slipping of the 

 earthy parts. The cliff, too, sloped a good deal more than had appeared 

 when the whole space was in view at a glance, and the growths at the 

 side hid the lower parts to a great extent. But for the fact that it was 

 on such a large scale, and the bottom of the valley so far down, we 



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