ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
them. Skirting the forest in a northerly direction, we 
went over a low hill range with delightful clear campos 
and patches of forest. We crossed another streamlet of 
foul-tasting water — with a strong flavour apparently of 
lead. 
In the great undulating valley we left behind — as we 
now altered our course slightly to the northwest — was 
prominent a double-humped hill which rose higher than 
any other except in the northwest portion of the landscape. 
There a high chain of hills could be seen. 
When we crossed over the second ridge (elevation 
1,400 feet), strewn with yellow lava pellets, at the end of 
extensive campos we obtained an imposing view to the 
north. An elevated flat-topped tableland of great mag¬ 
nitude rose in front of us — a perfectly straight line 
against the sky, but terminating abruptly with three 
gigantic steps, with a subsidiary one upon the second step, 
at its western end. This plateau stood out, a brilliant 
mass of cobalt blue with great projecting spurs, like a 
half-section of a cone surmounted by a semi-cylindrical 
tower along the southern wall of the plateau. Then a 
strange hill mass of four distinct composite domed heights 
with minor peaks stood between the plateau and us — and 
extended, like most of the other ranges, from southeast 
to northwest. 
348 
