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THE CAVERN OF ATARUIPE.
W e climbed with difficulty, and n o t w i t h o u t s o m e danger, a steep rock of granite, entirely bare. It would have been almost impossible to fix the foot on its smooth and sloping surface, if large crystals o f feldspar, resisting d e c o m p o s i t i o n , did n o t stand o u t from the r o c k , and furnish points o f s u p p o r t . Scarcely had we attained the s u m m i t o f the m o u n tain w h e n w e beheld with astonishment the singular aspect o f the surrounding c o u n t r y . T h e foamy bed o f the waters is filled with an archipelago o f islands covered with p a l m trees. W e s t w a r d , on the left bank o f the O r i n o c o , t h e wide-stretching savannahs o f the Meta and the Casanaro resembled a sea o f verdure. T h e setting sun seemed like a g l o b e o f fire suspended over the plain, and the solitary Peak o f Uniana, which appeared more lofty from being wrapped in vapours which softened its outline, all c o n t r i b u t e d t o a u g m e n t the majesty o f the s c e n e . I m m e d i a t e l y b e l o w us lay a deep valley, enclosed on every side. Birds o f prey and goatsuckers winged their lonely flight in this inaccessible circus. W e found a pleasure in following with the eye their fleeting shadows, as they glided slowly over the flanks o f the r o c k . A narrow ridge led us to a n e i g h b o u r i n g mountain, the rounded summit o f which supported immense blocks o f granite. T h e s e masses are m o r e than forty o r fifty feet in d i a m e t e r ; and their form is so perfectly spherical, that, as they appear to touch the soil only by a small n u m b e r o f p o i n t s , it might be supposed, at the least shock o f an earthquake, they w o u l d roll into the abyss. I d o n o t r e m e m b e r t o have seen any where else a similar p h e n o m e n o n , amid the d e c o m p o s i t i o n s o f granitic soils. If the balls rested on a r o c k o f a different nature, as in the blocks o f d u r a , w e might suppose that they had been rounded by the action o f water, or thrown out by the force o f an clastic f l u i d ; b u t their posit ion on the s u m m i t o f a hill alike granitic makes if more probable that they owe their origin to the progressive d e c o m p o s i t i o n o f the rock. T h e most remote part o f the valley is covered b y a thick forest. In this shady and solitary spot, on the declivity o f a steep mountain, the cavern o f Ataruipe o p e n s to the view. It is less a cavern than a j u t t i n g rock, in which the waters h a w scooped a vast hollow when, in the ancient revolutions