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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Beyond The Mission Of San Fernando These Nocturnal Insects
Disappear Altogether.
The water of the Orinoco is turbid, and loaded
with earthy matter; and in the coves, from the accumulation of dead
crocodiles and other putrescent substances, it diffuses a musky and
faint smell.
We were sometimes obliged to strain this water through a
linen cloth before we drank it. The water of the Atabapo, on the
contrary, is pure, agreeable to the taste, without any trace of smell,
brownish by reflected, and of a pale yellow by transmitted light. The
people call it light, in opposition to the heavy and turbid waters of
the Orinoco. Its temperature is generally two degrees, and when you
approach the mouth of the Rio Temi, three degrees, cooler than the
temperature of the Upper Orinoco. After having been compelled during a
whole year to drink water at 27 or 28 degrees, a lowering of a few
degrees in the temperature produces a very agreeable sensation. I
think this lowering of the temperature may be attributed to the river
being less broad, and without the sandy beach, the heat of which, at
the Orinoco, is by day more than 50 degrees, and also to the thick
shade of the forests which are traversed by the Atabapo, the Temi, the
Tuamini, and the Guainia, or Rio Negro.
The extreme purity of the black waters is proved by their limpidity,
their transparency, and the clearness with which they reflect the
images and colours of surrounding objects.
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