The First Ascent of Roraima. 31 
and under the rocks, and their branches meeting overhead 
there intertwine to make a dense rock. In making 
a path through this belt one passes now over the 
branches now under the roots. But perhaps the 
most striking character of this belt, though it is evident 
in somewhat less marked degree on the other tree 
covered parts of the mountain, is the universal coating of 
long and dense, green mosses which wraps rock, branch 
and trunk and indeed every visible thing, under head 
and over head, suggesting a feeling of muffled stillness 
much as does a coating of snow at home. And yet 
another feature, present in all the belts but in much 
the most marked degree up here, is the sponge-like satu- 
ration of earth, moss, rock and trunk with moisture ; and, 
consequent on this moisture, the vast abundance of 
luxuriant ferns, especially filmy ferns, is everywhere 
noticeable. 
Lastly, immediately above this belt, between it and 
the foot of the cliff is a narrow zone chiefly occupied 
by vast quantities of the blackberry already men- 
tioned, growing here among the loose debris which seems 
almost constantly to fall from the summit of the moun- 
tain. This latter belt reminds one strangely of home, 
not only because of its bramble-growth but because 
interspersed in the latter are vast quantities of the South 
American form of our English bracken (Pteris aquilina), 
with a fern externally resembling the English male-fern, 
and large quantities of heath -like Befaria. Only the 
abundant clumps of Geonoma, a few tree ferns and 
many small but beautiful tropical plants of the same 
family, and the occasional flight of a humming bird, 
remind one that one is in the tropics, 
