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THE STORY
Encouraged by Whitely's report, published in the
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1884, Sir Joseph
Hooker, an eminent botanist, used his influence to find the necessary
funds to support another expedition to attempt to reach the summit, this
time by way of the ledge. His friend, Everard Im Thurn, a Magistrate,
agreed to undertake the trip, accompanied by Harry I. Perkins, an Assistant
Crown Surveyor. Both, at the time, were living in British Guiana, so were
well placed to undertake such an expedition.
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Departing from a point near the coast, it
took Im Thurn and Perkins nearly eight weeks to reach the Indian
village of Teruta, on the southern slope of Roraima. Their first
impression of the ledge was that it looked so easy to climb that
they concluded that there must be some insuperable difficulty of
which they were unaware. Having climbed along Whitely's trail to
the base of the cliff in order to view the ledge more closely, they
employed Indians to cut a trail through the forest to the base of
the ledge itself.
EVERARD
IM THURN
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The forest was very dense, the stunted trees matted
together in a tangle of roots and bamboo. Every surface was covered in
spongy moss, and saturated with moisture. Clambering over slippery masses
of wet and slimy vegetation, tangled enough to bear their weight; over
high piled rocks and tree roots, with the sound of trickling water far
below, at last they reached the base of the cliff where the ground was
dry due to the considerable overhang of the rock.
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As they approached the base
of the ledge, they were able to see that the lower part of it was
broken, consisting of large masses of rock which towered over the
forest. The lower part of the ledge was difficult, but not dangerous,
their trail taking them over, under, and along branches, tree roots,
boulders, and up steep slopes of slippery mud, every object wrapped
in spongy wet moss and a glutinous alga that clings to surfaces
as a jelly. Finally they reached the break in the ledge at the waterfall,
which everyone had pronounced impassable, but which turned out to
be a broad, sloping reach of broken rocks. Luckily the waterfall
was not in full spate, and they reached the upper section of the
ledge quite easily. The explorers made fast progress up the remaining
section of the ledge, until they reached a point where just a few
steps more would bring their eyes on a level with the top, to discover
the secrets of Roraima.
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Ascent Ledge, Roraima
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