Roraima* 
(With two Maps.) 
READ AT MEETING OF BRITISH ASSOCIATION, ABERDEEN, SEPT. I< 
By the Editor. 
HE whole country of Guiana may be likened to 
a wedge driven into the very distincTt north- 
eastern shoulder of the continent of South 
America ; or, rather, it is like three wedges, represented 
respectively by the three countries of British, Dutch, 
and French Guiana. Of these, British Guiana penetrates 
furthest inland ; and just beyond the apex of this, — 
where, according to the at present vaguely accepted 
limitations of their respective boundaries, Brazil, Vene- 
zuela, and British Guiana meet, — stands the'wonderful 
mountain of Roraima, which, till the 18th of last Decem- 
ber, was deemed inaccessible. It stands, therefore, 
just outside British territory, in the Brazil. 
Roraima was first heard of — if we except a possible 
but doubtful reference to it by Sir WALTER RALEIGH— 
and then reached, some forty-five years ago, by the 
brothers SCHOMBURGK. Their account of the remark- 
able character of this mountain, and especially of the 
inaccessibility of summit, for-ever-isolated as it seemed 
to them — excited the vivid interest of scientific men. 
Since their time, some half-dozen white men have reached 
its foot, only to return with renewed stories of the won- 
* Reprinted from The Scottish Geographical Magazine. 
