204 



MAJESTIC SCENERY. 



On the 12th they set off at four in the morning. 

 The Indians rowed twelve hours and a half without 

 intermission, during which time they took no other 

 nourishment than cassava and plantains. The bed 

 of the river, to the length of 1280 yards, was full of 

 granite rocks, the channels between which were 

 often very narrow, insomuch that the canoe was 

 sometimes jammed in between two blocks. When 

 the current was too strong the sailors leaped out, and 

 warped the boat along. The rocks were of all di- 

 mensions, rounded, very dark, glossy like lead, and 

 destitute of vegetation. No crocodiles were seen 

 in these rapids. The left bank of the Orinoco, from 

 Cabruto to the mouth of the Rio Serianico, a dis- 

 tance of nearly two degrees of latitude, is entirely 

 uninhabited ; but to the westward of these rapids 

 an enterprising individual, Don Felix Relinchon, had 

 formed a village of Jaruro and Otomac Indians. At 

 nine in the morning they arrived at the mouth of 

 the Meta, which, next to the Guaviare, is the largest 

 river that joins the Orinoco. At the union of these 

 streams the scenery is of a very impressive charac- 

 ter. Solitary peaks rise on the eastern side, appear- 

 ing in the distance like ruined castles, while vast 

 sandy shores intervene between the bank and the 

 forests. They passed two hours on a large rock in 

 the middle of the Orinoco, upon which Humboldt 



scope, and no cause could be assigned for the phenomenon, unless the 

 sun's rays, "at that moment impinging in all their glory on every point 

 and peak of the snowy heights," "had some share "in vibrating these 

 mountain-chords."— JV*. M . Mag. xxx. 341. The granite statue of Mem- 

 non is well known to have emitted sounds when the morning beams 

 darted upon it ; and MM. Jomard, Jollois, and Devilliers heard a noise 

 resembling that of the breaking of a string, which proceeded at sunrise 

 from a monument of granite situated near the centre of the spot on 

 which stands the palace of Carnac. Singular sounds have been heard 

 from the interior of a mountain near Tor, in Arabia Petraea. They are 

 familiar to the natives, who ascribe them to a convent of monks, miracu- 

 lously preserved under ground, and were heard by M. Seetzen and Mr. 

 Gray, the only European travellers who have visited the place. For an 

 account of these curious phenomena, the reader may be referred to Dr. 

 Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic, forming No. L. of the Family 

 Library 



