The First Ascent of Roraima. 35 
Our Arekoonas had cleared the path a little further 
than the point where we now were ; but on following 
this up we found it did not go far. From the point 
where their work had ceased I sent them on to clear 
further, while I laid between papers such plants as I had 
already collected ; but they soon returned declaring they 
were frightened and could go no further. Then the 
Pomeroon Indians came splendidly to the front, espe- 
cially one, named GABRIEL, who declaring, on the strength 
of having once been between the mouth of the Pomeroon 
and Georgetown in a small provision sloop, that he had 
been a sailor, went first with me up one of the stiffest 
pieces of climbing that one need wish to remember, till 
we reached the top of a shoulder, a considerable way up 
the face of the cliff ; and from this point advance did not 
seem possible. The boiling point thermometer here 
showed a height of 7321 ft. 
For more than an hour past, thick mist had enveloped 
us ; and not only did this now become thicker but heavy 
rain also began to fall. The thermometer, though it was 
midday, fell to 54 Fahr., so that the cold, to us accus- 
tomed to the tropics, was intense. Moreover all the 
bushes and moss-covered trees which we had had to 
grasp, and by their means to raise ourselves, had been 
like sponges filled with iced water, so that we could hardly 
hold on to them for the numbness of our hands. Under 
these circumstances we determined to turn home- 
ward for that day, satisfied with having proved the 
practicability of making our way for a considerable dis- 
tance up the ledge and even, as it afterward appeared 
on examining the place from below, to a point above 
that at which the broken nature of the shelf had seemed 
E 2 
