Smyrna times., 1880-06-23
A Chance for Explorers.

on the broad surface Of the globe we in
habit. The sources Of the Nile and the
Congo have been discovered: there is but
little at the polar antipodes worth explor.
ing aside from meteorological purposes
and what IS there left worth seeking? This
despOndlng query is answered by Barring
ton Brown, the famous English traveller
who claims to have discovered 4 SINGULAR
mountain in South America. During his
survey Of Guiana he reached the foot of an
inaccessible mountain called Roraima. He
assembled to hight Of five thousand one
hundred feet above the level of the sea.
Above him rose a great wall, almost per
pendicular, two thousand feet in hight.
The gigantic cliff presented no pathway to
its summit, and it is believed it has never
been visited by man or beast of modern
ages. Who inhabit that upper world,
whose frontage as seen by the explorer ex.
tends distance Of eight or ten miles, it is
impossible to say, but it gives room for the
widest con lecture and the most lively play
of tho Imagination. A forest growth can
be seen upon its summit, and considerable
stream Of water Pours down from the great
| cliii-probably the greatest fall of water in
the world SO far as altitude is concerned.
The quantity of water that is precipitatcd
indicates a large area of land drained by
the stream and that it is inhabitable.
But who or what inhabt these mid-air
forests and valleys? That is the mystery
which is destined to incite the scientific as
well as the curious world to valiant efforts
at exploration. How can the dizzy heights
be scaled? The expedent that most readily
suggests itself is the balloon; a method
that is undoubtedly feasible if undertaken
under favoring conditions. One writer
gives play to his imagination in discussing
the possible fruits of an exploration of
! Roraima, and says:
| The invisible attraction Of the curious
savanna range Of island mountains to nat.
uralistS arises from the inaccessibility.
! This should not be understood as the mere
desire to excel others in feat Of climbing,
but as the hope that some relics Of the
mammalian life Of so-called "miocene"
| period may have survived on these isolated
attitudes, cut off from all communication
with the living, moving world. If any of
the ''miocene" mammals lived upen them
when the sea washed over their base, the
descendants of those animals may exist
there still, as the lemurs exist in the NADIA
gascar, and q whole family of masupials,
such as the kangaroo, in Australia. Per.
haps balloon may some day solve the
mystery which lends a charm to these is.
land mountains, and the happy naturalist
who lands-as one will, Of course, and in
time on the summit Of Roraima, may find
himself among the descendants Of the
races long since botted from the lower
world in which the evidence of their ex.
istence is recorded in the great stone books
alone. Amid the forest depths, on which
rests large cloud, he may find not the
gigantic saurians of the youthful world,
grim monsters Of the tish-lizard form, but
the great progenitOrS Of the existing nam
malta. Leaving the taplr, one OF the most
ancient OF eXtant creatures at the bottom
of the Roraima cascade he may find at its
top its gigantic cOgeners-huge herbiverous
animals fifteen and eighteen feet in length ;
the dlnotherium, a tapirlike creature,
larger than the elephant; antique analogues
of the mastodon, ancestors of the horse,
the hog, and the great cats, which in the
known parts of the continent are repre-.
} sented by the jagaur, the puma, and the
ocelOt The prospect of the dinotherium
alone would be sufficient to compensate an
enthusiastic naturalist for the labor oil
years. 1t is the largest of the terrestal
mammalia which have inhabited our globe
, and deservedly stands at the head of the
thick skinned as the megatherium
: or gigantic sloth at that Of the tardigrades
: Probably the dinotherium would be found
! if found at all, pursuing life like that o
the hippopotamus. Its great head and
tusks are fitted for grubbing up aquatic
plants, and, like those oRthe walrus, fol
helping the animal out of the water. Bu
the dinOtherium is but one of the startling
, forms which might be looked for on Ro
raima, if its cliffs be really as difficult q!
painted. Lizards in the sem.ophadiaT
stage might be encountered, and othel
animals, which, as the little boy said who
had been taken into a lecture of Prof
| Ovens, chad not quite made up theil
minds what they were going to be-"
SEASIDE AND GLEN.-All the Coney TslanC
railroads are running.
The valley of the Yosemite is one vas
) flower garden.
, The bathing dress worn at Berkeley
: Springs has low neck and no sleeves.
Already Bellevue avenue, Newport, i
o thronged with the vehicles, in great variety
! of the upper ten thousand.
e Colorado Springs, Colorado Territory, i
0 5000 feet above the sea, has 1000 ihhabi
tants, 1900 trees and not a saloon.
. One of the Long Branch hotels will hav,
: : over 200 children. 1t is believed there will
= be row or two before September.
!, There are ten Windsor, six Prospec
, Park and eleven Seaview hotels now to b,
= found on the long list of summer resorts.
y y The new proprietors of the White Sui
I, phur Springs mean to spend 100000 il
= remodelling and improving the hotels anC
: grounds.
e The great majority of hotel.kespers a
;, live in them, or rather one corner of them
a during the year.
= Fifty.seven years ago the Catskill Noun
! tain House was thrown open to the public
e and during all that time there has been n,
}, change in the management
q The Adriondaoks promise to be literall
d overrun with tourists and sportsmen thi
, season. Deer are unusually numerous ant
II the fishing is good everywhere in the north
n ern wilds. The light snow of the pas
Il winter enabled the animals to find plent
" of fosd and also prevented their wantol
d wholesale destruction by snowshoe huntin
f, and "yarding."
y DR.. Armitage rejoices that both General
If Garfield and Arthur are Baptists by profeI
sion or descent. Well, the Methods
d denomination has had exclusive swing i
o the White House for good many years
,r perhaps it is just as we'll to give the othe
great pioneer church a chance ;-sSITaclS
[Iad.( Herald