Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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I Have, However, Avoided A
Denomination Having Reference To This Circumstance, Because The Group
Of Mountains To Which I Am About To Direct Attention Extends Far
Beyond The Banks Of The Orinoco.
It stretches south-east, towards the
banks of the Rio Negro and the Rio Branco, to the parallel of 1 1/2
degrees north latitude.
The geographical name of Parime has the
advantage of reviving recollections of the fable of El Dorado, and the
lofty mountains which, in the sixteenth century, were supposed to
surround the lake Rupunuwini, or the Laguna de Parime. The
missionaries of the Orinoco still give the name of Parime to the whole
of the vast mountainous country comprehended between the sources of
the Erevato, the Orinoco, the Caroni, the Rio Parime* (a tributary of
the Rio Branco) and the Rupunuri or Rupunuwini, a tributary of the Rio
Essequibo. (* The Rio Parime, after receiving the waters of the
Uraricuera, joins the Tacutu, and forms, near the fort of San
Joacquim, the Rio Branco, one of the tributary streams of the Rio
Negro.) This country is one of the least known parts of South America
and is covered with thick forests and savannahs; it is inhabited by
independent Indians and is intersected by rivers of dangerous
navigation, owing to the frequency of shoals and cataracts.
The system of the mountains of Parime separates the plains of the
Lower Orinoco from those of the Rio Negro and the Amazon; it occupies
a territory of trapezoidal form, comprehended between the parallels of
3 and 8 degrees, and the meridians of 61 and 70 1/2 degrees. I here
indicate only the elements of the loftiest group, for we shall soon
see that towards south-east the mountainous country, in lowering,
draws near the equator, as well as to French and Portuguese Guiana.
The Sierra Parime extends most in the direction north 85 degrees west
and the partial chains into which it separates on the westward
generally follow the same direction. It is less a Cordillera or a
continuous chain in the sense given to those denominations when
applied to the Andes and Caucasus than an irregular grouping of
mountains separated the one from the other by plains and savannahs. I
visited the northern, western and southern parts of the Sierra Parime,
which is remarkable by its position and its extent of more than 25,000
square leagues. From the confluence of the Apure, as far as the delta
of the Orinoco, it is uniformly three or four leagues removed from the
right bank of the great river; only some rocks of gneiss-granite,
amphibolic slate and greenstone advance as far as the bed of the
Orinoco and create the rapids of Torno and of La Boca del Infierno.*
(* To this series of advanced rocks also belong those which pierce the
soil between the Rio Aquire and the Rio Barima; the granitic and
amphibolic rocks of the Vieja Guayana and of the town of Angostura;
the Cerro de Mono on the south-east of Muitaco or Real Corono; the
Cerro of Taramuto near the Alta Gracia, etc.) I shall name
successively, from north-north-east to south-south-west, the different
chains seen by M. Bonpland and myself as we approached the equator and
the river Amazon. First. The most northern chain of the whole system
of the mountains of Parime appeared to us to be that which stretches
(latitude 7 degrees 50 minutes) from the Rio Arui, in the meridian of
the rapids of Camiseta, at the back of the town of Angostura, towards
the great cataracts of the Rio Carony and the sources of the Imataca.
In the missions of the Catalonian Capuchins this chain, which is not
300 toises high, separates the tributary streams of the Orinoco and
those of the Rio Cuyuni, between the town of Upata, Cupapui and Santa
Marta. Westward of the meridian of the rapids of Camiseta (longitude
67 degrees 10 minutes) the high mountains in the basin of the Rio
Caura only commence at 7 degrees 20 minutes of latitude, on the south
of the mission of San Luis Guaraguaraico, where they occasion the
rapids of Mura. This chain stretches westward by the sources of the
Rio Cuchivero, the Cerros del Mato, the Cerbatana and Maniapure, as
far as Tepupano, a group of strangely-formed granitic rocks
surrounding the Encaramada. The culminant points of this chain
(latitude 7 degrees 10 minutes to 7 degrees 28 minutes) are, according
to the information I gathered from the Indians, situated near the
sources of Cano de la Tortuga. In the chain of the Encaramada there
are some traces of gold. This chain is also celebrated in the
mythology of the Tamanacs; for the painted rocks it contains are
associated with ancient local traditions. The Orinoco changes its
direction at the confluence of the Apure, breaking a part of the chain
of the Encaramada. The latter mountains and scattered rocks in the
plain of the Capuchino and on the north of Cabruta may be considered
either as the vestiges of a destroyed spur or (on the hypothesis of
the igneous origin of granite) as partial eruptions and upheavings. I
shall not here discuss the question whether the most northerly chain,
that of Angostura and of the great fall of Carony, be a continuation
of the chain of Encaramada. Third. In navigating the Orinoco from
north to south we observe, alternately, on the east, small plains and
chains of mountains of which we cannot distinguish the profiles, that
is, the sections perpendicular to their longitudinal axes. From the
mission of the Encaramada to the mouth of the Rio Qama I counted seven
recurrences of this alternation of savannahs and high mountains.
First, on the south of the isle Cucuruparu rises the chain of
Chaviripe (latitude 7 degrees 10 minutes); it stretches, inclining
towards the south (latitude 6 degrees 20 minutes to 6 degrees 40
minutes), by the Cerros del Corozal, the Amoco, and the Murcielago, as
far as the Erevato, a tributary of the Caura.
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