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 Smallest Fish Are
Visible In Them At A Depth Of Twenty Or Thirty Feet; And Most Commonly
The Bottom Of The River May Be Distinguished, Which Is Not A Yellowish
Or Brownish Mud, Like The Colour Of The Water, But A Quartzose And
Granitic Sand Of Dazzling Whiteness.
Nothing can be compared to the
beauty of the banks of the Atabapo.
Loaded with plants, among which
rise the palms with feathery leaves; the banks are reflected in the
waters, and this reflex verdure seems to have the same vivid hue as
that which clothes the real vegetation. The surface of the fluid is
homogeneous, smooth, and destitute of that mixture of suspended sand
and decomposed organic matter, which roughens and streaks the surface
of less limpid rivers.
On quitting the Orinoco, several small rapids must be passed, but
without any appearance of danger. Amid these raudalitos, according to
the opinion of the missionaries, the Rio Atabapo falls into the
Orinoco. I am however disposed to think that the Atabapo falls into
the Guaviare. The Rio Guaviare, which is much wider than the Atabapo,
has white waters, and in the aspect of its banks, its fishing-birds,
its fish, and the great crocodiles which live in it, resembles the
Orinoco much more than that part of the Atabapo which comes from the
Esmeralda. When a river springs from the junction of two other rivers,
nearly alike in size, it is difficult to judge which of the two
confluent streams must be regarded as its source.
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