264 TlMEHRi. 
proved that its upper part was really fast joined by a 
narrow neck of stone to the lower; there was an <f Old 
Man of Hoy" ; then again an archway, seeming the 
strange proscenium to that strange scene beyond ; then 
a terraced Mexican pyramid, its steps even enough to 
afford easy access to its summit ; then a gigantic human 
mask of stone ; next a cap of stone ; animal figures of 
stone, and hundreds of similar natural grotesques. In 
short, it seemed for the moment hard to believe but that 
there had been gathered together, and put away on that 
lofty and isolated small summit, all those grotesque, 
artificial-seeming natural rocks which, attracting the at- 
tention of the curious traveller, are usually found 
scattered singly, and at wide intervals over the face of 
the whole earth. 
At the moment it all seemed inexplicable, and even 
now I seem to feel it almost presumption to suggest an 
explanation of this strange scene. But it must be done. 
The whole group of grotesque rocks seems to me to be 
but another and very remarkable example of one of those 
eppelings — the nature and origin of which I have already 
described. Each of the rock-monsters on the top of 
Roraima, whether it consists of a single rock or of a 
pile of rocks, is distinct from each of its fellows. Each 
is, it seems to me. a single pillar — more or less gigantic 
as it may be, yet comparable to the melting pillarlet of 
snow ; and each of these pillars is gradually melting 
away (like a snow-man in a thaw) under the influence of 
the aerial denudation which on Roraima, — the very home 
of all mists and rain and storms and winds,— exercises 
in a degree hardly approached elsewhere its unchecked 
and powerful sway. 
