Mountain Eesidences or the Gkeat Spieit. 
135 
turned out to be a regular uetw oi k of granite wiiUh and dykes — formed 
of fine-grained gneiss, a green quartz-bearing felsi>ar porpliyry, and a 
dense felspar rock — tliat divided tlie lied of the river into innumerable 
streams, eaeli of which, with (h*at'ening noise and tremendous fcn-ce, was 
dashing its way througli the irregularly heaped -up boulders or was 
trying to pass tlie now i-ising cliffs to be again ol)striicted liv some 
deflecting cross-current, tlius making of tlie A\iio]e stretch nothing else 
but a boiling cauldron of foaming roaring water.. Only the' falls of 
Aclira-mucia c(,>ubl l)ear comparison M-'itli this wildly I'onuiutic almost 
demoniacal upheaval of the waters (b»\vn upon which there gazed 
Avitli solemn mien on eitlu^r side of the foaming surge, the 400 ft. rocky 
heights of Maikang-Yepat(u-i on tlie eastern bank, and of Arawanna on 
the western: Sirikuanta follows the latter at a trifling distance. They 
lie 3° 53' N. lat. and 60' iW W. long. Miukang-Yepatori has a more 
elongate shape as compared with Arawanna, Avhich has a rounded-off one. 
Bravely but perspiriugly we climlted to the io|» of Maikang-Yepatori and 
found our labours rewarded a thousandfold in the imposing and 
surprising landscape and ])anoramic views. At onr feet tlu^re thundered 
and foamed the raging body of water wrestling with itself and the rocky 
cliffs at the same time that, like a crater belching forth the stony 
fragments freed from its entrails, it sjtoutcd and scattered the spray 
clouds and foam-flakes into the air to build a continual change of 
innumerable rainbows only to disappear as ]'a]>id1y as they Avere formed. 
Far away in the distance, E. to N.W., Ihcvc towered over one anothei- the 
sombre bluisli nuisses of the Pacaraima Range the bare tops of which, 
lying farther back, had b(^en hitherto hidden from us in the plain. 
Exactly to the NW. lilgh aliove the range, there rc»se a cone-shaped 
mountain with blunted top, Zabang, Avhich the Indians following us 
greeted with the exclamaticni "Alaknnaiiua-aute" (Home of the (ireat 
Spirit.) A second Makunainux -ante, the (Airapua rt)ck showed up to the 
NE. in the distant savannah, b.very high peculiarly-shaped mountain 
or crag would seem to be the residence of the Great Spirit. 
333. Some miles in front, towards the north, we noticed the junction 
of the Zuruma and Cotinga, cucIosimI l)y the thick vegetation along their 
borders, l)i'yond which ^It. Maikangpati and the isolated mountains 
Waiking-E[»ping and Piriwai, raised their heads on the eastern and 
western shores respectively. We could follow the silver riljbon of the 
Cotinga, onr new course, u]) to where it touched the Pacaraima Kauge. 
In the SSE. and SVV\, as far as the eye could reach, an immense plain, 
like a green sea, stretched away to the horizon into which its 
limits, now no longer visiltle, merged, while the dense tind)er-belt 
of the (Cotinga and its tril)utaries, followed a snake-like course through 
it, also to become finally blurred in the distance. Daik rising columns 
of smoke, whicli enclosed Mt. Wanakara in white circles — we had passed 
the base of this mountain several days before — indicated that the 
savannah fire lighted by our Indians shewed no diminution but had 
spread far, far tOAvards the S. and S.E. After we liad had our fill of the 
lovely landscape and erected a GO-foot pole A\'ith flag to be used for 
trigonometrical measurements at the junction of tlie Zuruma and 
