d.

It will take you five days, from the Indian habitation on the point of
the island, to where these falls and rapids terminate.

There are no huts in the way. You must bring your own cassava-bread
along with you, hunt in the forest for your meat, and make the night's
shelter for yourself.

Here is a noble range of hills, all covered with the finest trees, rising
majestically one above the other, on the western bank, and presenting as
rich a scene as ever the eye would wish to look on. Nothing in vegetable
nature can be conceived more charming, grand, and luxuriant.

How the heart rejoices in viewing this beautiful landscape! when the sky
is serene, the air cool, and the sun just sunk behind the mountain's top.

The hayawa-tree perfumes the woods around; pairs of scarlet aras are
continually crossing the river. The maam sends forth its plaintive note,
the wren chants its evening song. The caprimulgus wheels in busy flight
around the canoe, while "whip-poor-will" sits on the broken stump near
the water's edge, complaining as the shades of night set in.

A little before you pass the last of these rapids two immense rocks
appear, nearly on the summit of one of the many hills which form this
far-extending range where it begins to fall off gradually to the south.

They look like two ancient stately towers of some Gothic potentate,
rearing their heads above the surrounding trees. What with their
situation and their shape together, they strike the beholder with an idea
of antiquated grandeur which he will never forget. He may travel far and
near and see nothing like them. On looking at them through a glass, the
summit of the southern one appeared crowned with bushes. The one to the
north was quite bare. The Indians have it from their ancestors that they
are the abode of an evil genius, and they pass in the river below with a
reverential awe.

In about seven hours from these stupendous sons of the hill, you leave
the Essequibo, and enter the river Apourapoura, which falls into it from
the south. The Apourapoura is nearly one-third the size of the Demerara
at Stabroek. For two days you see nothing but level ground, richly
clothed in timber. You leave the Siparouni to the right hand, and on the
third day come to a little hill. The Indians have cleared about an acre
of ground on it, and erected a temporary shed. If it be not intended for
provision-ground alone, perhaps the next white man who travels through