The Victoria Regia, 
279 
was soon mine to stare at a plant which, with its leaves and blossoms 
showed ui) conspicuously from out of a small currentless bight. It was 
the magnificent Victoria regia Sclioinb. with its rounded leaves from five 
to six feet in diameter and its beautiful huge flowers : the petals from 
periphery to centre merged from white through a series of the softest of 
tints to a moist rosy red, and filled the whole neighbourhood with their 
lovely scent. Stöckle and I at the same time quickly bent down over the 
edge of the corial to break off so wonderful a blossom when, as if bitten by 
a tarantula we speedily withdrew our hands, our thoughtless haste 
receiving a fairly painful lesson from the tj-inch long sharp but yet 
elastic spines. As my brother has already exhaustively described the 
whole plant I refrain from further details. A number of water-fowl, 
duck, and small heron ran around on the plate-like leaves and gave 
chase to many insects that seemed to collect there. In silent wonder I 
gazed upon this rare plant, and only after a long while cautiously 
possessed myself of some of the blossoms .by means of a cutlass, though 
it was unfortunately impossible to dry them. It was surprising that 
among the rich number of specimens not a single young plant was to be 
seen. 
798. From now on the western bank was enclosed with a smaller 
wooded border to which the savannah was directly joined; the 
eastern one on the contrary remained thickly forested. We had just 
turned a sharp bend when from the foot of the approximately 30-foot 
high bank we saw Haiowa* rising on the summit and my brother’s flag 
waving towards us. A number of Indians who were pressing close 
around one of the buildings indicated yet from the river the exact spot 
that my brother was occupying. After fastening our boats at the 
landing and climbing the height, I was at a loss to know in which 
direction I ought first to turn my attention because, while captivated by 
the charming surroundings of the village, the beautiful outlook over the 
savannahs spreading far to the northward was tempting me to peep in the 
distance. A number of small groups of foliage trees, bushes or palms 
were dotted here and there over the immense yellow-green grassy plain, 
like pleasant islands in an ocean waste, while the mighty isolated 4,000 ft. 
high Makarapan Range rose from out amidst this lovely landscape and 
the bleak Sierra Pacavaima with its 1,500 ft. high eastern spur limited 
the extensive view. The Pacaraima Range extends pretty well 200 miles 
to the westward and forms at the same time in the north the watershed 
between the basin of the Orinoco and the Esse'quibo, in the south that of 
the Rio Branco, a tributary of the Amazon, as well as the boundary line 
between the immense savannahs of Southern, and the luxuriant virgin 
forests of Northern, Guiana. 
799. In the settlement itself the liveliest activity reigned, for my 
brother in the spacious strangers’ quarters, which, like the houses on the 
coast, was open on all sides, was just then busily engaged in paying for 
the large quantities of cassava bread, plantains, yams, bananas, fowls, 
* The site of this settlement is -said to have been on the left bank opposite a spot 
known to the present-day Macusis as Add.twa (Ed.) 
