The Canuku and Pacahaima Ranges, 
303 
he would pounce down and waylay the animals, fearing nothing evil, 
as they were passing l»y. Not only the ant-hills but the rising ground 
of the rest of the savannah was everywhere strewn with pieces of quartz, 
clay, and brown iron-stone gravel : the quartz was coloured reddisli-brown 
with iron oxide, while the clay appeared both in the form of isolated 
hardened fragments as well as in complete similarly hardened boulders. 
Near by the ant-hills and larger boulders occupied by those thieves, 
numbers of ugly blackish lizards (Ecphy motes torquatus Dum.) were 
sunning themselves, but in spite of every effort I never succeeded in 
catching any of the volatile creatures, because they always disappeared 
in the grass as quick as lightning as soon as I got within six to eight 
paces. A small prettily coloured lizard of the genus Ccntropy $ or 
Cncmidophonts was also slipping around in and amongst the grass. 
853. The otherwise ordinary savannah was soon to be more enlivened 
as a whole, because we saw several parties of persons ahead moving 
towards us in true Indian file, i.e., one behind the other in uninterrupted 
sinuous lines between tue ant-hills. As the first party drew near and 
the leader recognised Mr. Youd, an expression of real delight was 
depicted on the faithful good-natured faces: everybody pressed round to 
shake hands and scrutinise him more carefully to make sure that it was 
indeed their old friend. Youd introduced us to an old one-eyed man, 
the chieftain Basico,f whose joy expressed itself in every limb; 
he shook my hands with honest cordiality and inward joy and the 
expression “Matti!” Naturally they had plenty to tell Youd about what 
the Caraiba had done, and what they had suffered at their hands. After 
the first lot had finally taken leave and continued on their way to the 
Awaricuru to fetch our baggage, the same friendly scene was repeated 
with each succeeding group, so that from now on we could only make 
slow progress to Pirara : our pace was also retarded by several swampy 
spots occupied by large numbers of the Mauritia flcxuosa which, with 
their smooth grey trunks and numerously leaved crowns, often strove 
a hundred feet and more to reach the skies. In the course of our journey 
we got on the top of a not inconsiderable rise where one of the most 
beautiful panoramas unexpectedly opened out before us: a landscape - 
over which the eye rambled with delight. Southwards, on our left, the 
thickly forested Conokon or Canuku Range stretched some 30 miles 
away from North East to West in fanciful wavy lines out of which 
various huge bleak masses of mountain rose above the dark patches of 
foliage as they soared away in picturesque rocky ridges towards the 
heavens: northwards, the cheerless Pacaraima Range also limited the 
horizon from East to West and in certain spots attained a height of 
quite 2,000 feet. Canuku means “overgrown with forest” and Pacaraima 
receives its name from the peculiar shapes of certain rocky heights of 
the Range that have much resemblance to the Indian baskets which are 
called Pacara. The Pacaraima Range extends in the said direction from 
t Appun in the second volume of his Travels, p. 391, makes mention subsequently of 
one Paschiko, the Macusi chieftain of Tarinang, la very large settlement, not too far from 
Pirara, between the Pacaraima and Canuku Mountains. (Ed.) 
