141 
PiATZANG Sends Mv Thoughts Homewards. 
liave been pretty close by now, when, just aftw doubling a sharp point, 
there unrolled itself with every paddle-stroke, an ever increasingly lovely 
landscape. In a real labyrinth of iiiountains. wrestling with, and towering 
over one anothei-, there suddenly spread out l»efore ns the picturesque 
niountain-diain froui tlie base of which the i' to I'M) foot high Piatzang 
Eock, bare of all vegetation, rais(^d itself and its two giant granite watch- 
towers: a stone wall some ÖO to <!() feet in height, resembling the crum- 
bling masonry of an old feudal castle, had built itself* up around it. 
]My tirst glimpse of this Avonderfid ]»i( tnre called t(t mind a }inudre<l 
memories of the homeland, such as Sachsenburg (Thuringia) with its 
Uvo old towers, or the nari-ow Pass A\ here the River Unstrut fights its way 
to the golden meadows, — which were freshly kindled and revived witli 
every change of situation in our course towards the remarkable erag — for 
its hoary granite towers becanu' so transfoi-nied with each stroke of the 
paddle that sometimes the ruins just referred to, oi- the crumbling and 
cracked toAver on the Kylfhiiuser,* or again one (^f the old castles along 
the Rhine, stood before my enra])tured gaze. P.nt alas! where! were the 
welcome slopes with the luscious gi'een of the beecli and the oak, and the 
nativ*' vines? Where were the whistling steameis, tlie innumerable river- 
boats, and traders, the slowly floating rafts with their little cabins for 
ihe cicw ]»ei-clied on toji whicli gave Father F\liine such brisk and varied 
animat ion? iOvei-ytliing here was enveloped in dead silence, except when 
momentarily interrupted by the sidashlng of the ]>a<ldles and the voic-es 
of (Uir ]n<lians. 
o.-»."). On subsequently climbing Piatzang the height of the upper 
column was found to be 150, that of the lower 120 feet: the base of the 
former anmunted to 110 ft. On top of the smaller one, a dabiru liad built 
lier nest, and gazed Avonderingly down on the rare forms of life that had 
developed Inflow. According to the astronomical observations Piatzang 
lies in 4° 11' lat. X. and 60° '20' long. W. The Macusis also speak of their 
piais as Piatzang: the peculiar formation of the towers or else a similarity 
of these granite columns with the dreaded gentry may have acquired this 
name for them. A fresh bend of the river exi)Osed another charming 
aspect: on the eastern shore a little stream, the Wirina, opened into the 
Cotinga. A thii-d bend l)rought ns to the very foot of the range. On both 
banks stood a mountain: Morakai on the right, Pataghe on the left, both 
thus foi-ming a giant gateway to the mountain chain. Innumerable rocky 
boulders suri'ounded the bases of both and stirred u]) anew the waters of 
the Cotinga. To ^lorakai and Pataghe ara joined a long range of hills, 
the two of them each forming parallel chains I'uuning more or less east 
and west. As we crossed the mighty portal, the river came to meet u.<! 
fi'om the X.E., l»etAveen some 10 to 1,200 foot' high mountains with bare 
tops overstrewn with granite bould(M s and tind>er-ed at their bases, while 
the waves, hitherto but lightly curled, now became turbulent rel;ellious 
billows. Our journey had reached its end. The Ootinga had liecome a 
mountain torrent, which was impassable for even the smallest craft. There 
was nothing else left but at least to look out for a suitable landing place 
*See Nole Sect .1 . Vol, I. 
