perhaps
imagine why I could not move from the rock on which I sat gazing at that
magnificent, almost awe-inspiring, spectacle. Night came on swiftly, as
it always does in those latitudes, and I scrambled 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 90 ft.
high. At the foot of the two-tiered waterfall was a great circular basin
which had all the appearance of having been formerly a volcanic vent. The
flowing water, which tumbled down with terrific force, had further washed
its periphery smooth. The centre of the basin was of immense depth.
Directly under the fall a spacious grotto was to be seen under a huge
projecting rock.

The elevation of the stream above the falls was 2,150 ft., below the
falls 2,060 ft. The temperature of the atmosphere was 72 deg. Fahr., and the
minimum temperature during the night 58 deg. Fahr.

The Roncador flowed from north-east to south-west as far as the foot of
the great plateau we had observed during our march. There, on meeting the
great vertical wall, its course was diverted in a northerly direction and
then again to the north-west, where the stream eventually fell into the
Cuyaba River. The Rio Jangada, on which we had camped the previous day,
was a tributary of the Roncador, and so was the streamlet called Pedra
Grande, which entered the Roncador on its right side. The Pedra Grande
took its name from an immense monolith, worn quite smooth, near its bank.

From the Roncador we continued on our northerly course. The western view
of the "balanced Sphinx boulder" was indeed remarkable. It seemed to
stand up on a small pivot despite all the laws of gravitation, the
heaviest side of the upper rock projecting far out on one side with
nothing to balance it on the other.

Cutting our way easily in the scrub, we rose to 2,300 ft. over a flow of
red lava (it had flowed in an easterly direction) in several successive
strata. The upper stratum was grooved into geometrical patterns, such as
we had met before, wherever it showed through the thin layer of red
volcanic sand which covered most of it. We were there in a zone of
immense natural pillars of rock, some of such great height that they
were visible miles off along the range--which extended from south to
nor