A TERRACED WATERFALL 
part, 150 feet high, there was a precipitous fall, then a 
huge, smooth, inclined plane of lava at an angle of 15° 
overlapping the top, where it had subsequently been sub¬ 
jected either to violent earthquake shocks or other dis¬ 
turbing influences, as it was badly seamed and fissured. 
Many segments had crumbled down, leaving the remain¬ 
ing portion of a most extraordinary shape. In the centre 
of the crater there stood a huge mass of rock 150 feet 
high, which looked like an inclined table — a giant slab 
cleanly cut at its angles, which protruded at great length 
outside the base formed by broken-up blocks. On looking 
west from the summit of the extinct volcano one obtained 
a marvellous view of the vertical cliffs between which the 
Roncador River flowed. 
Then there was a great tableland extending from 
north to south, composed of red volcanic rock and white 
limestone. A separate, red, quadrangular, castle-like 
structure of immense proportions rose in the middle 
foreground in the northwest, upon a conical, green, grassy 
base. 
Add to this wonderful work of Nature a magnificent 
sky of gold and brilliant vermilion, as limpid as limpid 
could be, and you will perhaps imagine why I could not 
move from the rock on which I sat gazing at that mag¬ 
nificent, almost awe-inspiring, spectacle. Night came on 
swiftly, as it always does in those latitudes, and I scram¬ 
bled down the hill, among the sharp, cutting, slippery, 
shiny rocks, arriving in camp minus a good many patches 
of skin upon my shins and knuckles. 
At the point where I crossed the Roncador River 
there were three handsome waterfalls in succession, the 
central one in two terraces, some ninety feet high. At the 
foot of the two-tiered waterfall was a huge, circular basin, 
which had all the appearance of having been formerly a vol¬ 
canic vent. The flowing water, which tumbled down with 
terrific force, had further washed its periphery smooth. 
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