KAIETEUR AND RORAIMA 



The Great Falls and the Great Mountain of the 



Guianas 



By Henry Edward Crampton, Ph. D. 



With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author 



AS THE field for thorough scientific 



L\ exploration, South America is at 

 A. \^ last coming into its own. 



The great bulk of Africa has yielded 

 up its secrets with astonishing rapidity 

 since the not-distant days of Livingstone 

 and Stanley — men whose work has been 

 done within the memory of our elder 

 generations. 



But, until very recently, our sister con- 

 tinent of the South has remained what 

 Africa was in the early nineteenth cen-. 

 tury : cities had been built along the 

 coasts and at some inland points, precious 

 minerals had been sought and found in 

 the lofty Andes, but few besides the na- 

 tives, themselves unknown to science, 

 were aware of what the jungles and 

 plains possessed. 



Now the fallow field is receiving ever- 

 increasing attention from men of science, 

 and as the past era was that of Africa, 

 so the present century is claimed by 

 South America. 



Although some time has elapsed since 

 the writer made a journey of scientific 

 exploration into the little-known interior 

 of British Guiana and northern Brazil, 

 yet the vivid impressions are in nowise 

 dulled or effaced. On the palimpsest of 

 memory the experiences group them- 

 selves about two principal focal points — 

 the great falls of Kaieteur, far hidden in 

 the forests of British Guiana, and the 

 table-land of Mount Roraima, a feature of 

 more than geological interest, which lifts 

 its sheer walls at the point where Guiana, 

 Brazil, and Venezuela come together. 



The present account tells but a part of 

 the story, which in all of its fullness can 

 never be written ; the experiences were 

 unusual and varied, as they must always 

 be in a region where distances are not 

 reckoned in miles, but according to the 

 dangers and difficulties incident to travel. 



The general purpose of the expedition, 

 which was undertaken in the interests of 

 the Department of Invertebrate Zoology 

 of the American Museum of Natural 

 History, of which department the writer 

 is the curator, was to run a "biological 

 traverse" from the Atlantic Ocean to the 

 heights of Roraima. 



A glance at the topographic map of 

 South America will show that in few 

 other places, outside of the Andes, is it 

 possible to draw a line that will cross so 

 many different types of territory in the 

 same short distance. 



WHERE MANY FORMS OE LlEE IN NORTH 

 AMERICA ORIGINATED 



From the coastal plains, extending ap- 

 proximately two hundred miles inland 

 from the ocean, an abrupt rise to the 

 higher forests of Guiana and of certain 

 Amazonian tributaries is followed by a 

 similar rapid passage to the dry and 

 open savannas of northern Brazil, and 

 these in turn culminate in the Pakaraima 

 Range of mountains, whose highest ele- 

 ment is Roraima. 



The region about Roraima was chosen 

 as the goal because of its great geolog- 

 ical age and the antiquity of its fauna 

 and flora. From this place originated 

 many of the living forms of the Antilles 

 and of southern North America when 

 the northward retreat of the ice-sheets 

 formed during the Glacial Period per- 

 mitted the establishment of climatic con- 

 ditions favorable for organisms of the 

 hot and temperate regions. 



Ere the eventful journey was begun, 

 some weeks were devoted to field-work 

 in the Lesser Antilles from St. Thomas 

 southward, especiallv in Dominica, which 

 far surpasses the other islands in natural 

 beauty. Here the party included Roy Y\ . 



227 



