482 THE CATEEK OF A.TABOTEE. 
We climbed witu difficulty, and not without some danger, 
a steep rock of granite, entirely bare. It would have been 
almost impossible to fix the foot on its smooth and sloping 
surface, if large crystals of feldspar, resisting decomposition 
did not stand out from the rock, and furnish points of 
support. Scarcely had we attained the summit of the moun- 
tain when we beheld with astonishment the singular aspect 
of the surrounding country. The foamy bed of the waters 
is filled with an archipelago of islands covered with palm- 
trees. Westward, on the left bank of the Orinoco, the 
wide-stretching savannahs of the Meta and the Casanare 
resembled a sea of verdure. The setting sim seemed like a 
globe of fire suspended over the plain, and the solitary -Peak 
of TTniana, which appeared more lofty from being wrapped m 
vapours which softened its outline, all contributed to aug- 
ment the majesty of the scene. Immediately below us lav 
a deep valley, enclosed on every side. Birds of prey and 
goatsuckers winged their lonely flight in this inaccessible 
circus. We found a pleasure in following with the eye 
their fleeting shadows, as they glided slowly over the flanks 
of the rock. . , . , 
A narrow ridge led us to a neighbouring mountain, the 
rounded summit of which supported immense blocks of 
granite. These masses are more than forty or fifty feet in 
diameter; and their form is so perfectly spherical, that 
as they appear to touch the soil only by a small number ot 
points, it might be supposed, at the least shock of an earth- 
quake, they would roll into the abyss. I do not remember 
to have seen any where else a similar^ phenomenon, ‘amid 
the decompositions of granitic sods. If the balls rested on 
a rock of a different nature, as in the blocks of Jura, we 
might suppose that they had been rounded by the action ot 
water, or thrown out by the force of an elastic fluid; but 
their position on the summit of a hill alike granitic, makes 
it more probable that they owe their origin to the progres- 
sive decomposition of the rock. , . , 
The most remote part of the valley is covered by a thicK 
forest. In this shady and solitary spot, on the declivity ot 
a steep mountain, the cavern of Ataruipe opens to the view. 
It is less a cavern than a jutting rock, in which the waters 
have scooped a vast hollow when, in tno ancient revolutions 
