66 
Botanical Reminiscences. 
pendicular stone wall, like a forum, rises, interclianging with 
wooded tracts, which had chosen the deep gullies and the 
banks of the creeks running from the top. The base of 
the perpendicular wall was surrounded by a forest. With 
amazement we looked at these imposing masses of rock, 
which, from the distance, would sooner be taken for basalt 
than for sandstone. 
With the Roraima, the great watershed of the three great 
rivers of Guiana, the Amazon, Orinoco, and Essequibo, lay 
before us. 
The Roraima, Kukenam, Ayang-Catisbang, and Marima 
form almost a square, of which the Roraima, the easterly 
side, is not only the highest but also the most interesting 
mountain of the group. The greatest extension in length 
is twenty-five geographical miles, and it rises 5,100 feet above 
the table-land, and 8,000 feet above the sea. The upper 
summit consists of a naked mass of sandstone almost per- 
pendicular, rising, as already mentioned, 1,500 feet. In 
a north-westerly direction from the Roraima rises the 
Kukenam, with the same wall-like summit, as also the 
Ayang-Catisbang, and, in a northerly direction, the Marima. 
These four mountains have, from S.E. towards N.W., an area 
of ten geographical miles Many waterfalls rush down from 
these rocks, and the most enthusiastic description would be 
thrown into the shade if compared with the truly-imposing, 
unspeakably-grand reality, with its thundering and foaming 
cataracts, and its wonderful, charming tropical vegetation. 
The River Cotinga rushes down from the easterly part of 
the Roraima, and carries its waters in connexion with the 
Takutu, Rio Branco, and Rio Negro into the largest river, 
the Amazon. The River Kukenam comes from the mountain 
Kukenam, and becomes, after joining the Yuruani and the 
Caroni, tributary to the Orinoco. 
What immense volumes of water rush down from this 
precipitous elevation, with deafening thunder, may be judged 
of by the number of rivers which originate on the heights of 
the mountains; and not without cause is this group of moun- 
tains termed by the Indians, The ever fruitful mother of 
streams.^^ A similar interesting geognostic phenomenon will 
scarcely repeat itself anywhere else. 
In silent admiration I gazed at the masses of mountains,^^ 
with foaming strings of water, spreading before my eyes, 
until an eiavious veil of mist suddenly covered everything. 
