X 
158 A Flourishing Forest of Ite Palm. 
valley watered 1>y the Airopa, a little .stream whicli made it.s way tlirougli 
thick cliniips of Jlaiirifia patm and a luxuriant ('iirdtcllu-husU. The 
rugged and fantastic mountain tops enclosing the valley again supplied a 
bounteous harvest for comparisons of all kinds, this being especially the 
case with Tamuugkang that rose on the N.E. 
oSO. Tired and relaxed from the fatiguing and unaccustomed walle, 
we made up our minds to pitch our tents in the vaJh^y and to spend tin 
night here. This was easier said than done, however, uwing to the want 
of the necessary tent-poles. Hardly had we got over our difficulties than 
an awful thunderstorm, suddeidy broke over our heads, almost as if it 
had really waited until we had finished our Avork. In the midst of .i 
frightful gale, day A^as turned into gloomy night, which would now and 
again be rent by the quivering and blinding lightning w hiie Ave believed 
the detonating thunder-claps to l)e nothing else than the smashing up of 
the surrounding rocky massifs. Our tents could only offer short opposi- 
tion to the slashing (b)wnpour. After the A\eat)ier had cleared, there 
foUoAved a bright starry night which hoAvever Avith its commencing fall 
of temperature, forced us to resume our journey before daybreak along 
tlie valley in a Jv.W. direction. In the course of the day ^ye crossed the 
little river ^Fariko Avhich waters a second long valley and empties into 
I he Tupuring. 
3<si. Xext to the innumerable quantity of Mauritia palms our atten- 
liou was draAvn at the exit of the valley to the unusually high ant-hills, 
of Avhieh several measured upAvards of 18 to 20 feet, and were constructed 
ill al)rupt Avindiug spirals. Remarkable in its way among these insects 
lliat did' not differ at all from tliose pi-eviously observed, except in its 
raking place four months later than on the savannah, was Avlien, after 
depositing their swarms of young, they left tlieir breeding-places in such 
Aast nuniliers that we were entirely covered Avith their AA'ings that Avere 
so loosely attached as to stick to the slightest touch. 
382. A projecting mountain-l»ase ])*i-evented us getting a nutre distant 
A iew along the dale, but when Ave got OA-er it. there lay before us a dense 
nourishing forest of Mauritia ]ialms which filled the entire valley, t^udi 
a forest was all the more surprising as Ave had hitherto always found 
and admired the stately tree AAith its scaly red-coloured fruit oidy in 
isolated or at the most, small clumpsv in the swampy savannah ]daius: 
thickly clustered as thev Avere here, the palm los't a very great deal of ]!s 
im]>osing appearance, for in such crowded numbers it only formed a dark 
"reen roof. Nevertheless whercA'er we came across them, the eye rested 
with delight on their beauty. We admired the palms with the same 
enthusiasm on the mighty delta of the Orinoco and Essequibo, Avliere in 
many places they likewise spread their fan-like fronds over tlie 
surrounding forest-trees, as we did Avhen meeting them on the savannah. 
f,y(,y 14,000 square miles in extent inclusive of that classical tract of 
rountrv believed by Sir Walter Kaleigh to be the ''El Dorado" tlirouah 
which the tributaries of those three mighty streams, the Amazon. Oi-inoko 
and Essequibo work their way. It was with similar delinht that Ave 
o-azed at them again on Eoraima at a certain height of 4.000 feet above 
sea-leA-el. although Martins in his glorious work on the palms states that, 
fit the y.ery most, they are not founrj at a higher IcA-el than SOO Pect; we 
