On the Berbice, which falls into the Atlantic about sixty miles eastward
of George Town, the falls and rapids--which do not, however, reach to
within one hundred and sixty miles of its mouth--are very numerous.
While the scenery round them is highly picturesque, they are extremely
dangerous. Here is found the cascade of Idurewadde; and higher up, the
cataract of Itabru. Above these again are more than forty falls and
rapids, called by Schombergh the Christmas Cataracts, and which cost him
and his companions immense labour to surmount. On their return, one of
the party, rashly standing on the thwarts of the canoe while shooting
the falls, upset it and was drowned.
Huge caymans abound in the river, and lie like logs of wood at the foot
of the cataracts or rapids, watching stealthily to catch and swallow
whatever the fierce current may bring down to them.
Above these falls is a lagoon, on which he discovered the now far-famed
Victoria Regia, before that time unknown to the world. At the head of
the Masaruni rises Mount Roraima, 7540 feet in height. It is the
principal watershed, from which various streams flow in different
directions into the three great rivers--Amazon, Orinoco, and Essequibo.
Hillhouse and Schombergh describe the side of the mountain as composed
of cliffs, fifteen hundred feet in height, of compact sandstone, as
perpendicular as if erected with the plumb-line, and overhung in part
with low shrubs. Though distant, they appear as if in dangerous
proximity. Around are detached masses, apparently torn from those
gigantic walls of nature; and every moment it seems as if one of them
would block up the path, or cut off all retreat. In places the channel
of the stream is so narrow that the canoe can hardly pass, in others it
widens out into a shallow claret-coloured lake. At length a capacious
basin is entered, black as ink, surrounded by a bold and extensive shore
as white as chalk. The roar of the water is heard, but no current
perceived; though there is a foam-like yeast on the surface, which
remains all day without visible alteration. At length, in the distance,
a broken white line is seen struggling through a cluster of granite
rocks at the base of two quartz cliffs of a mixed character. This is
the fall of Macrebah.