KAIETEUR AND RORAIMA 



239 



AT THE EVENING CAMP THE NATIVES SWUNG THEIR HAMMOCKS IN THE SMOKE 



EROM THE FIRES 



This expedient was adopted to drive away the myriads of sand-flies that were a torture 



during the day. 



built by termites of another species. Such 

 a "find" was welcome indeed to the 

 bearers, who tore it open and eagerly 

 devoured the softer-bodied inhabitants as 

 they swarmed out of the broken gal- 

 leries. 



The huge grasshoppers of the plains 

 also were greatly enjoyed by the Indians, 

 although to me their interest was of an- 

 other kind. 



As the day wore on, the heat became 

 intense, and at the noon camp every avail- 

 able shelter was employed as a protec- 

 tion from the direct rays of the sun. 

 Then, too, myriads of minute black flies 

 attacked the human wayfarers, marking 

 each bite with a drop of blood, and their 

 tortures continued until the smoke of 

 the camp fires at dusk rid us of their 

 presence. 



An occasional snake was seen, usually 

 a rattlesnake, disturbed by the sticks of 

 the foremost Indians of the single file, 

 continually beating the grass. 



In every way — botanically, zoologic- 

 ally , and geologically — there was the 

 sharpest contrast to the thick forests 

 through which we had previously passed ; 

 only in an occasional clump of trees in a 

 hollow or along the borders of a river — 

 a forest in a grassy sea — did the Guiana 

 butterflies and plants disclose themselves. 



On the same day of the first sight of 

 Roraima a long march brought us to a 

 place mapped as Parmak* near the Co- 

 tinga River, but Parmak had vanished! 

 The hundreds of natives had moved 

 away and only one "banaboo" remained, 

 whose younger inhabitants darted into 

 the near-by woods on seeing a white man 

 for the first time. 



We had hoped for a comfortable night's 

 rest in hammocks slung under roofs of 

 thatch, but instead we Avere forced to 

 make a camp by torchlight in the drip- 

 ping forest, utterly tired out from the 

 fifteen miles of travel under the blazing 

 sun. 



