216 
So Far, and no Earther. 
plant, the absence of which I was naturally the first to notice, but only 
when too late to remedy the loss. 
478. Ever increasing numbers of massive boulders, in between which 
we had to wind our way, led me to conclude that I was drawing near 
the roek/ wall. The hitherto light and airy surroundings disappeared, 
a id I ro.iud myself once more in verdant shade. The liigher we climbed, 
and the closer we tried to uuike our way to it, tlie thicker 1»ecame the 
vegetation. We had to climb up over boulders, down into gulleys, which 
always made me wonder, so soon as T had a look back', how we had man- 
aged to make the ascent. \Ve had tlnis once more scaled a rougli mass of 
rock, Avhen tlie dense vegetal ion lightened, and the 1,500 ft. high sand- 
stone colossus rose in front of me. The summit, according to a trigono- 
metrical mcasnrenu'ut, is f(. above the tableland. Fi-esh Avonder 
seized me as I looked up iit ilu- giganlic wall, tlie top of which projected 
a bit, and overcome Avith a ]ieculiar opiiressive, T miglit almost say dis- 
tressing, sensation, my heart liegau (o lieat as violently as if I were being 
threatened with some danger 0[)poHed to which my pygmean strength 
sank into insignilicance. As I gazed at its giddy height, the rocky massif 
appeared wild and awful: huge lionhlers tlmt must have torn themselves 
loose from the summit or the sides A^ere strewn around in hellish dis- 
order, Avhile the splintered and shatt(M-ed remnants of what once were 
trees stood boldly out in between tliem. Tlie su])]imity, tlie transcendancy 
implied in the immensity of this wonder of nature, the sense of my own 
unimportance, and then the ever-recurring thought that the ovei'hanging 
summit Avas about to fall and bury me under its crushing Aveight — all 
these must have combined to produce the abovementioned distressing sen- 
sation that other-Avise was quite foreign to me. A numlier of floAvering 
orchids, BromrViaernr Avith large scarlet-red blossoms, ferns Avith delicate 
fronds AN'aviug gracefully in the breeze, small bushes Avith yellow and white 
flowers, as Avell as creepers Avith a complete covering of blossom, flourish- 
ed on the soakingly wet rocky Avall, fluttered and swayed to and fro and 
ridiculed and quizzed me from the in-ecipitous crag: they tossed them- 
selves about as if conscious of being beyond my destructiA'e reach, and at 
every swing disappointed the hope in Avhich I had indulged of seeing this 
one or that one, dislodged by tlie l»reeze, falling at my foot. What botani- 
cal treasures must be contiuned on those steep Avails. How many must 
be hidden on their tops. And yet they Avere more secure from adA'en- 
turous ascent than the interior of the earth itself.* The cliffs Avere com- 
* Mount Eoraima. since these days, has been repeatedly climbed, especially by foreign 
scientists, among whom Koch-Griiiiberg was one of the earliest to describe it under its proper 
name of Roroima. The claim to the first ascent was made by H. I. Perkins and E. im Tnurn 
in 1H84, There is reason to Ijelieve that the path followed to the base of the cliff up to the 
waterfall was more or less one of the re-opened tracks originally cut by the Indians who were 
collecting birds for Henry Whitely, whose grave is still pointed out to visitors at Annai. 
As regards the climb itself, Mr. Perkins says that " it was in no place difficult, nor I think 
dangerous, but very dirty, wet, and stony— I have always thought that other people failed 
to get to the top because they had not sufficient provisions to enable them to stay long 
enongh in the place to cut the track, and try their luck, and they therefore turned liack," The 
party which accompanied the Editor in July. 1',I14, started fromTewonno one morning Ijefore 
dawii, reached the summit, and were back at the village the same evening after dark. The 
mountain was again climbed, two years later, by the Hon. C. Clementi and his wife 
{Through British Guiana fo the Summit of Roraima, London 1920), who was thus the first 
white woman to have scaled this interesting landmark. (Ed.) 
