ATAEAIPF, THE DEVIL’S DOCK. 
Latitude, 2° 55' N. Longitude, 58° 48' W. 
DISAPPOINTED in two jonrnies in our wish of attaining the central ridge of mountains where the river Essequibo is supposed to 
take its rise, we determined, when the expedition which started in September 1837 from Georgetown, reached the confluence of the 
river Roiwa with the Rupununi, to ascend the former, and its tributary the Guidaru, and by crossing the savannahs, try to gain one of 
the rivers which flow from the west into the upper Essequibo *. An opportunity was thus afforded to us of seeing another of those 
geological phoenomena which add to the picturesque and magnificent scenery of Guiana, namely, the Ataraipu, a natural pyramid, which 
rises on the western bank of the river Guidaru, and is estimated at a height of nine hundred feet above the river f. There was no 
account of any of the travellers who preceded me having reached this remarkable rock. Doctor Hancock saw it from a distance, but did 
not approach it within twenty miles ; and its situation has been so erroneously given, that there is a difference of eighteen miles of latitude 
between its assumed and real position. 
On reaching the rapids called Carabiru by the Caribs, we encamped, and accompanied by a party of Indians, I struck off in a 
westerly direction, through woods so dense, that we were at times obliged to clear our path with cutlasses. As we forced our way through 
the wood, we were greeted from time to time by the finest perfume, which we traced to a liana, or creeper, and one of the bush-rope vines 
of the colonists. This sweet-smelling plant was Schnella brachystachya (Benth.) with white flowers, of which the largest petal was spotted 
with pink, growing in voluminous clusters, its stem twisted and contorted in so remarkable a manner as well to deserve the name of 
bush-rope. To describe the various ways in which these twists and contortions take place would be difficult ; sometimes the stem is as 
delicate as a ribbon, while at others it presents a bundle of stems so closely twined together as to make it no easy matter to separate 
them with an axe. A troop of little Sackowinkis, or squirrel monkeys (Callithrix sciureus), some of the most beautiful and most active 
of their kind, leaped with the agility of a true squirrel from branch to branch, and alarmed by our appearance, uttered their plaintive 
call, resembling more the voice of a bird than an animal, and then hastening away, were soon hidden among the thick foliage of the 
large forest trees. 
We had scrambled for about two hours through the woods when the nature of the soil changed, and in lieu of a vegetable mould, 
shelfy pieces of rock were lying heaped upon each other ; among them grew numerous plants of the pine-apple tribe, and I refreshed 
myself with the fruits of the Bromelia penguin, the date of the West Indies, a plant which I saw for the first time in Guiana, although so 
common in the former place. We ascended a mass of granite about four hundred feet in height. Wherever a layer of black earth had 
accumulated, a species of Clusia had fixed its roots in the shelves of granite, surrounded by numerous Orchidese, of which an Epidendrum, 
with large umbels of bright pink flowers was the greatest ornament ; Oncidium, Monochanthus, and Cyrtopodium grew there in voluminous 
clusters. Several Cacti, with only a few inches of soil, in which they could take root, raised their huge limbs in the form of a Candelabrum, 
while a more humble station satisfied the curiously formed Melocactus, or Melon-thistle, which, like the Bromelia penguin, I here met with for 
the first time. We crossed some hollows, which appeared to have been scooped out by the frequent torrents caused by the tropical rains, 
and soon after reached the northern side of the hill, when the magnificent natural j)yramid of Ataraipu burst on our sight, raising its 
bare head from an abyss of dense foliage, which spread around in all directions at its foot. The base of this mountain is wooded for 
about three hundred and fifty feet ; from thence rises the mass of granite, devoid of all vegetation, in a pyramidical form, for about five 
hundred and fifty feet more, making its whole height nine hundred feet above the Guidaru, or thirteen hundred feet above the sea. We 
ascended the summit of Hutu-cubana, as the Indians called the hill on which we stood, in order to have a more extensive view. At the 
distance of two miles the remarkable mass of granite appeared to be one of those eminences Avhich the poet says, 
‘‘ Like giants stand 
To sentinel enchanted land.” 
In the distance, mountains rose above mountains, partly bare and rocky, partly Avooded, and forming an amphitheatre. To the west I 
* Our success in this undertaking has been related in the Report to the Royal Geographical Society, and a detailed account has just appeared in the Tenth Volume of 
tlie Journal of that Society. 
[ Guidaru signifies in the lingua gcral a kind of war-club. 
C 
