Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Night Was Beautiful And Serene, But The
Torment Of The Mosquitos Was So Great Near The Ground, That I Could
Not Succeed In Levelling The Artificial Horizon; Consequently I Lost
The Opportunity Of Making An Observation.
On the 18th we set out at three in the morning, to be more sure of
arriving before the close of the day at the cataract known by the name
of the Raudal de los Guahibos.
We stopped at the mouth of the Rio
Tomo. The Indians went on shore, to prepare their food, and take some
repose. When we reached the foot of the raudal, it was near five in
the afternoon. It was extremely difficult to go up the current against
a mass of water, precipitated from a bank of gneiss several feet high.
An Indian threw himself into the water, to reach, by swimming, the
rock that divides the cataract into two parts. A rope was fastened to
the point of this rock, and when the canoe was hauled near enough, our
instruments, our dry plants, and the provision we had collected at
Atures, were landed in the raudal itself. We remarked with surprise,
that the natural damn over which the river is precipitated, presents a
dry space of considerable extent; where we stopped to see the boat go
up.
The rock of gneiss exhibits circular holes, the largest of which are
four feet deep, and eighteen inches wide. These funnels contain quartz
pebbles, and appear to have been formed by the friction of masses
rolled along by the impulse of the waters. Our situation, in the midst
of the cataract, was singular enough, but unattended by the smallest
danger. The missionary, who accompanied us, had his fever-fit on him.
In order to quench the thirst by which he was tormented, the idea
suggested itself to us of preparing a refreshing beverage for him in
one of the excavations of the rock. We had taken on board at Atures an
Indian basket called a mapire, filled with sugar, limes, and those
grenadillas, or fruits of the passion-flower, to which the Spaniards
give the name of parchas. As we were absolutely destitute of large
vessels for holding and mixing liquids, we poured the water of the
river, by means of a calabash, into one of the holes of the rock: to
this we added sugar and lime-juice. In a few minutes we had an
excellent beverage, which is almost a refinement of luxury, in that
wild spot; but our wants rendered us every day more and more
ingenious.
After an hour of expectation, we saw the boat arrive above the raudal,
and we were soon ready to depart. After quitting the rock, our passage
was not exempt from danger. The river is eight hundred toises broad,
and must be crossed obliquely, above the cataract, at the point where
the waters, impelled by the slope of their bed, rush with extreme
violence toward the ledge from which they are precipitated.
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