461 



tains of Encaramada appear to rise from the 

 water, as if they were seen above the horizon of 

 the" sea. They form a continued chain from 

 East to West. As you approach them, the as- 

 pect of the country becomes more picturesque. 

 These mountains are composed of enormous 

 blocks of granite, cleft and piled one upon 

 another. Their division into blocks is the effect 

 of decomposition. What contributes above all 

 to embellish the scene at Encaramada is the 

 force of vegetation, that covers the sides of the 

 rocks, leaving bare only their rounded summits. 

 They look like ancient ruins rising in the midst 

 of a forest. The mountain immediately at the 

 back of the mission, the Tepupano * of the Ta- 

 manack Indians, is covered by three enormous 

 granitic cylinders, two of which are inclined, 

 while the third, worn away at it's basis, and more 

 that eighty feet high, has preserved a vertical 

 position. This rock, which calls to mind the 

 form of the Schnarcher in the Hartz, or that of 

 the Organs of Actopan in Mexico -f~, composed 



* Tepu-pano, " place of stones," in which we recognize 

 tepu, et stone, rock," as in tepu-iri, mountain. We here again 

 perceive that Lesgian Oigour-Tatar root tep (stone), found in 

 America among the Mexicans, in tepetl; among the Caribbees, 

 in tebou; among the Tamanacks, in tepuiri • a striking analogy 

 between the languages of Caucasus and Upper-Asia and those 

 of the banks of the Oroonoko. 



t In Captain Tuckey's Voyage on the River Congo, we 



