46 TlMEHRI. 
are few days in the year when it is really clear on 
the top of Roraima. And these constant mists and the 
frequently prevailing heavy clouds and rain storms, to- 
gether with the constant and varying, but ever powerful, 
winds, account for the super-saturation with water of 
everything on Roraima. Futhermore, the soft sandstone 
rock, always thus saturated and always exposed to the 
strong blasts of many winds, owes its fashioning into its 
very remarkable forms simply to extraordinarily active 
aerial denudation. 
There would be great difficulty, almost amounting 
under present circumstances to impossibility, and only to 
be overcome by a very considerable expenditure of time 
and money, in clearing the path through the forest slope 
and up the ledge so as at least to be able to carry 
up hammocks and provisions, so as to be able to 
remain for a night on Roraima, or even to sleep 
at any point much nearer the top than ( our house.' 
It is also equally impossible to reach the top early 
enough in the day to explore more than a cer- 
tain short distance from the point first reached. 
As far, however, as I could see from the summits of the 
tallest pinnacles, and this is no inconsiderable distance, 
the character of the whole of Roraima is that of the part 
more directly examined. And the summit of the neigh- 
bouring mountain of Kookenaam, visible from Roraima 
because considerably lower than that mountain, is also of 
the same character. 
There is no need to describe our climb down the 
mountain to our house. Once there, it became necessary 
to consider our further plans — whether to ascend again 
from this same point; or to proceed round the moun- 
