Mount Roraima. 257 
der and especially of the inaccessibility. In 1877, an 
article in the Spectator may be said to have popularised, 
raised, and spread far the fame of Roraima. 
Yet, in mere height, the mountain is but a dwarf, sur- 
passed by many up which tourists every summer-day carry 
their bottled beer and sandwiches ; for its summit is but 
between 8,000 and 9,000 feet above the level of the sea, 
and only some 5,000 feet above the level of the plain 
from which it rises. The interest lies, not in its height, 
but in its extraordinary formation, and in the apparent 
inaccessibility of its summit. 
Imagine a flat-topped pillar, itself some 2500 feet in 
height ; set on a very steeply sloped truncated cone of 
about another 2500 feet in height ; or rather, first imagine 
a flat-topped, mason-wrought pillar of but 25 feet in 
height, set on a steeply-sloping pediment of another 25 
feet. It would be rather difficult, if unaided by ropes or 
mechanical appliances, to ascend that pillar. Much 
more difficult, then, did it seem to ascend the natural 
pillar, in all some 5000 feet in height, formed by Roraima. 
And even yet more difficult did this feat seem when it is 
remembered that the sloping base on which stands the 
pillar-like portion of Roraima is, over the greater part of 
its surface, rendered but just barely passable by reason 
of a complete covering of huge boulders and rocks, such 
as would present the appearance of an enormously 
magnified moraine, and that these boulders are clothed, 
obscured, and rendered yet more impassable by one of 
the densest and most tangled forests to be found even in 
the tropics. And, once again, yet more difficult did the 
feat seem, when it is remembered that on many days 
throughout the year — only, however, the Indians vow, 
HH 
