io8 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



the effects of the previous day's debauch. 

 For two days we journeyed up the Camarang 

 in a south-westerly direction ; on the third, we 

 branched off in the Ataparoo river and arrived 

 in the evening at the usual landing-stage of 

 the Indians below a great Fall, which was 

 hidden from our view though, and here our 

 real overland journey began. On the 

 previous day at one point, where the river was 

 of considerable width, a great excitement 

 prevailed suddenly amongst the advance 

 guard of our fleet, when the Indians spied a 

 tiger on the opposite bank, and under the 

 shouts of " Kaikusi ! Kaikiisi !" made a rush in 

 that direction, but before they reached the 

 mid-stream the beast had disappeared in the 

 thick underbush, and the volley fired by 

 Seyler and some more proved to be a miss. 

 I mention th's episode simply because it \\'as 

 the only one occasion on our whole expedi- 

 tion on which we came across a ferocious 

 animal. Snakes, of course, small and large, 

 were of such daily occurrence, that in time 

 we did not pay special attention to them, but 

 killed them whenever we could. 



On the morning of 31st October we said 

 good-bye to Robert and his companions, and 

 started towards Roraima on foot. After 

 another mountain ascent of terrible steep- 

 ness and sunilar conditions as on the 

 Curubung, the fore.st ended in a distinctly 

 straight line, and late m the afternoon we 

 stepped out in the wide, open Savannah, near 

 a river called Cama, which there formed the 

 boundary between the colony and Venezuela. 

 We were told that we would find before us 

 a small settlement, called Ariamang, but to 

 our great disappointment we found the houses 

 burnt down, the place deserted, and only a 

 few remaining charred poles reminded one of 

 a former habitation. Now we were always in 

 the open Savannah, and such a glorious 

 Savannah ! everything bright and luxurious ; 

 numberless wood-islands studded here and 

 there, while after all the hot and stuffy air of 

 the forests we could breathe at last a 

 refreshing cool, to us almost cold air, loaded 

 with the various fragrant scents of the 

 Savannah vegetation. For instance, while 

 marching along a very sandy track one day 



we perceived one particular sweet scent, so 

 strong that I could not resist to find out the 

 source of it, and to my agreeable surprise I 

 discovered, close to our path, a large group of 

 Sobralia liliastrum, which grows there some 

 six to eight feet high, and was then covered 

 with its golden-yellow blossoms. Growing with 

 this Sobralia we also met with huge clumps 

 of another Orchid, Epidendrum Schom- 

 burgkii, with its red and purple flowers, and 

 growing to a height of four to six feet. The 

 underbush for a considerable distance con- 

 sisted of a beautiful scarlet-flowered, shrubby 

 Justicia, also in full and picture-like bloom, 

 intermixed with extensive growths of Abol- 

 boda sceptrum, whose larg'e spiny r'osettes 

 on long dried flower-stalks were everywhere 

 visible. Looking in every direction the e}-e 

 met with extensive batches, bordering 

 almost every stream, of the majestic Palm, 

 Mauritia flexuosa, whose hard and broad 

 leaf-stems, when cut in proper shape, provided 

 capital sandals for our Indians. 



The grandest scenery, however, presented 

 itself to us on our left, showing an immensel\' 

 long range of mountain formations, consisting 

 of the most peculiarly shajied forms of the 

 Fluyabave bo 111 the foreground, behind it the 

 Itarica-rima, ne.xt tu this the Waiaka-biapa, 

 at a further distance the flat-topped 

 Kukenaam, the brother of Roraima, and 

 behind this we could just distinguish the 

 majestic outlines of Roraima itself. What 

 melodious names ! 



On the out skirt of one of these wood- 

 islands we decided to stop for a few days, 

 as Seyler informed me that in this particular 

 wood-island, three years pre\iously, Osmers 

 and himself had found the Cattleya Law- 

 renceana m large quantities. We did, indeed, 

 find it, but not in large quantities ; quite 

 naturally those two had skimmed the cream 

 off the milk, and all they left for me to find, 

 with a good amount of searching, were about 

 400 to 500 decent plants. For these plants 

 we roughly built a sort of a stage underneath 

 a roof of palm-leaves in the bush, and another 

 start was made on the 7th November, after 

 again leaving some loads behind in charge of 

 a guard, as some of our new men from the 



