It There Forms The Rapids Of Paru And Is Linked With The Summits Of Matacuna.

Fourth.

The chain of Chaviripe is succeeded by that of the Baraguan (latitude 6 degrees 50 minutes to 7 degrees 5 minutes), celebrated for the strait of the Orinoco, to which it gives its name. The Saraguaca, or mountain of Uruana, composed of detached blocks of granite, may be regarded as a northern spur of the chain of the Baraguan, stretching south-west towards Siamacu and the mountains (latitude 5 degrees 50 minutes) that separate the sources of the Erevato and the Caura from those of the Ventuari. Fifth. The chain of Carichana and of Paruaci (latitude 6 degrees 25 minutes), wild in aspect, but surrounded by charming meadows. Piles of granite crowned with trees and insulated rocks of prismatic form (the Mogote of Cocuyza and the Marimaruta or Castillito of the Jesuits) belong to this chain. Sixth. On the western bank of the Orinoco, which is low and flat, the Peak of Uniana rises abruptly more than 3000 feet high. The spurs (latitude 5 degrees 35 minutes to 5 degrees 40 minutes) which this peak sends eastward are crossed by the Orinoco in the first Great Cataract (that of Mapura or the Atures); further on they unite together and, rising in a chain, stretch towards the sources of the Cataniapo, the rapids of Ventuari, situated on the north of the confluence of the Asisi (latitude 5 degrees 10 minutes) and the Cerro Cunevo. Seventh. Five leagues south of the Atures is the chain of Quittuna, or of Maypures (latitude 15 degrees 13 minutes), which forms the bar of the Second Great Cataract. None of those lofty summits are situated on the west of the Orinoco; on the east of that river rises the Cunavami, the truncated peak of Calitamini and the Jujamari, to which Father Gili attributes an extraordinary height. Eighth. The last chain of the south-west part of the Sierra Parime is separated by woody plains from the chain of Maypures; it is the chain of the Cerros de Sipapo (latitude 4 degrees 50 minutes); an enormous wall behind which the powerful chief of the Guaypunabi Indians intrenched himself during the expedition of Solano. The chain of Sipapo may be considered as the beginning of the range of lofty mountains which bound, at the distance of some leagues, the right bank of the Orinoco, where that river runs from south-east to north-west, between the mouth of the Ventuari, the Jao and the Padamo (latitude 3 degrees 15 minutes). In ascending the Orinoco, above the cataract of Maypures, we find, long before we reach the point where it turns, near San Fernando del Atabapo, the mountains disappearing from the bed of the river, and from the mouth of the Zama there are only insulated rocks in the plains. The chain of Sipapo forms the south-west limit of the system of mountains of Parime, between 70 1/2 and 68 degrees of longitude. Modem geologists have observed that the culminant points of a group are less frequently found at its centre than towards one of its extremities, preceding, and announcing in some sort, a great depression* of the chain. (* As seen in Mont Blanc and Chimborazo.) This phenomenon is again observed in the group of the Parime, the loftiest summits of which, the Duida and the Maraguaca, are in the most southerly range of mountains, where the plains of the Cassiquiare and the Rio Negro begin.

These plains or savannahs which are covered with forests only in the vicinity of the rivers do not, however, exhibit the same uniform continuity as the Llanos of the Lower Orinoco, of the Meta and of Buenos Ayres. They are interrupted by groups of hills (Cerros de Daribapa) and by insulated rocks of grotesque form which pierce the soil and from a distance fix the attention of the traveller. These granitic and often stratified masses resemble the ruins of pillars or edifices. The same force which upheaved the whole group of the Sierra Parime has acted here and there in the plains as far as beyond the equator. The existence of these steeps and sporadic hills renders it difficult to determine the precise limits of a system in which the mountains are not longitudinally ranged as in a vein. As we advance towards the frontier of the Portuguese province of the Rio Negro the high rocks become more rare and we no longer find the shelves or dykes of gneiss-granite which cause rapids and cataracts in the rivers.

Such is the surface of the soil between 68 1/2 and 70 1/2 degrees of longitude, between the meridian of the bifurcation of the Orinoco and that of San Fernando de Atabapo; further on, westward of the Upper Rio Negro, towards the source of that river, and its tributary streams the Xie and the Uaupes (latitude 1 to 2 1/4 degrees, longitude 72 to 74 degrees) lies a small mountainous tableland, in which Indian traditions place a Laguna de oro, that is, a lake surrounded with beds of auriferous earth.* (* According to the journals of Acunha and Fritz the Manao Indians (Manoas) obtained from the banks of the Yquiari (Iguiare or Iguare) gold of which they made thin plates. The manuscript notes of Don Apollinario also mention the gold of the Rio Uaupes. La Condamine, Voyage a l'Amazone. We must not confound the Laguna de Oro, which is said to be found in going up the Uaupes (north latitude 0 degrees 40 minutes) with another gold lake (south latitude 1 degree 10 minutes) which La Condamine calls Marahi or Morachi (water), and which is merely a tract often inundated between the sources of the Jurubech (Urubaxi) and the Rio Marahi, a tributary stream of the Caqueta.) At Maroa, the most westerly mission of the Rio Negro, the Indians assured me that that river as well as the Inirida (a tributary of the Guavare) rises at the distance of five days' march, in a country bristled with hills and rocks.

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