BOO T A N. 
45 
We were seriously assured that the concussion of the air, occasioned 
by loud conversation, would inevitably bring down on us, torrents of 
rain. We escaped the danger: but we had not long left Peachukom, 
when the clouds, which we had seen collecting, broke in abundant 
showers. Thus we obtained credit for attention to the advice of our 
guides; nor were their precautions lost upon us, as they taught us to 
avoid wasting too much time on so commanding a spot, which, from 
its superior elevation, stands in the way, to intercept much of the va¬ 
pour exhaled from the extensive waste, that lies spread far and wide 
beneath its base. 
We next ascended the Oomkoo, a mountain higher than the for¬ 
mer, covered to its summit with trees, all clothed with moss, and with 
creepers intertwined amongst them, of surprising length and thick¬ 
ness, and not less remarkable for their flexibility and strength; qua¬ 
lities which render them an excellent substitute for rope, the use of 
which indeed they entirely supersede 3 
The mountain is composed in some places of clay; but for the 
most part it consists of a flinty stone, striated with talc, and intermixed 
with marble. It produces a great quantity of bamboo, which is very 
hollow, and smaller than that of Bengal, having its knots at a greater 
y 
a In the forests of America are found a sort of ozier, or withs, called by the Spaniards, 
Bejucose; by the French, Lianes ; by the Indians, Nibbees; which are usually employ¬ 
ed as ropes in America. This plant twists about the trees it meets with, and rising 
above their highest branches, its tendrils descend perpendicularly, strike into the ground, 
take root, rise up around another, and thus mount and descend alternately. Other ten¬ 
drils are carried obliquely by the wind, or some other accident, and form a confused and 
interwoven cordage, which resembles the rigging of a ship.—Bancroft’s Nat. Hist, of 
Guiana, p. 99. 
