52 
A Difficult Descent. 
like mine. So as to keep, if not in sight, at least witliin sound of tliese 
fleet-footed guides, we signalled a Insty sliout from time to time: tliis 
continned to be answered from front and Ixihind, till the replies of the 
stragglers, dying away in alnutst inaudible tones, proved to ns that the 
orders given to the ne^^roes and mtilattoes had not been obeyed. 
129. After following up the long narrow pass for a while we again 
climbed a hill, the slopes of which were covered with a still greater 
number, if that were possible, of huge granite boulders, between and 
over which we continued our way in a serpentine course. Many of these 
l/Oulders Avere decked with Onhidca, Agave, and Cactus, but most 
frequenlly with Ci/rtopodiii iii A ndcTsonii, Scho))hl)iir(i]cia )ii(ir(/ii)af(i , 
Catth\i/(i siiprrha, Ma.rilla ria , lirassavola and Yanilla. I had never seen 
the C(i1lh i/<i again since the Tvn]>ununi. Bushes of Cassia and Eiif/eaia 
had shot u]) wherever a little vegetable-mould had collected: they 
apparently seenu^d to grow out of the mass of stone. On reaching the 
summit, there opened out once more at our feet a stony stretch of 
savannah, at the end of A\hich rose a giant Finis that spread its huge 
liorizontal limbs far into the s]iace around: these v/ere sustained by 
innumerable sup]iorts formed from its aerial roots which, after reaching 
down to earth around the whole circumference of its foliaged roof, had 
here taken root a2,ain. Though the leafy covering, already from a 
distance, gives this immense tree Avith its supports — in which it mostly 
resembles the llanyan (Firus Ind'tca) of Ceylon — a naturally very 
charactei'istic a]>peavance, it was the case here to a slid niore marked 
d( gree, because immediately beli'ind it there towered a huge mass of 
granite which, p('rha]is 1^ miles in circumfer(^nce, rose at least to a 
height of 300 feet: and over this we had to go. Upon the many scattered 
boulders uud( r the cooling shade of the Ficiis we gave our tire<l limbs 
the rest of which they stood so inuch in need; at the same timle, l^efore 
climbing this stone-wall, we had to await the stragglers at least till 
they reached the ri<lge of the hill behind, where we saw them by little 
and little, one at a time, clumsily bobbing up into view. 
130. If clinvbing up the huge rocky mass called for unusual 
care, quite three times as much w\as required in slithering 
down, for only by that term could one describe its descent on 
the op]iosite side. Cerciis, Alclocartiis, Agave and here and there 
the low bush of Dcsmnnfhiis, as well as several Cliisia and Cassia 
bedecked the hill. Arrived at the base of its opposite edge we 
found ourselves once more in a new basin surroiMided by crags and 
rocks, over which our guides, who took the direction from individual 
rocky summits and ridges, led the way partly through small 
dense woodland. ])artly across considerable stretches of savannah. 
It was only these open savannahs tliat afforded us a panoramic view of 
cur Avildly romantic surroundings. I have never since met with more 
bizarre rocky masses, nor again Avith A'alleys or hills that could in the 
slii^htest degree com])are Avith those inchuled in our journey of to-day. 
Though on preA'ious occasions I had perforce smiled at the wealth of 
imagination displayed by the Indians^ and bcAvailed uiy northern materi- 
