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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Two Portages But Little Frequented*
Are Situated Between The Rio Branco And The Rio Essequibo, South Of
The Chain Of Pacaraina; They Shorten The Land-Road Leading From The
Villa Del Rio Negro To Dutch Guiana.
(* The portages of Sarauru and
the lake Amucu.) On the contrary, the portage between the basin of the
Rio Branco and that of the Carony crosses the summit of the chain of
Pacaraina.
On the northern slope of this chain rises the Anocapra, a
tributary of the Paraguamusi or Paravamusi; and on the southern slope,
the Araicuque, which, with the Uraricapara, forms the famous Valley of
Inundations, above the destroyed mission of Santa Rosa (latitude 3
degrees 46 minutes, longitude 65 degrees 10 minutes). The principal
Cordillera, which appears of little breadth, stretches on a length of
80 leagues, from the portage of Anocapra (longitude 65 degrees 35
minutes) to the left bank of the Rupunuri (longitude 61 degrees 50
minutes), following the parallels of 4 degrees 4 minutes and 4 degrees
12 minutes. We there distinguish from west to east the mountains of
Pacaraina, Tipique, Tauyana, among which rises the Rio Parime (a
tributary of the Uraricuera), Tubachi, Christaux (latitude 3 degrees
56 minutes, longitude 62 degrees 52 minutes) and Canopiri. The Spanish
traveller, Rodriguez, marks the eastern part of the chain by the name
of Quimiropaca; but preferring to adopt general names, I continue to
give the name of Pacaraina to the whole of this Cordillera which links
the mountains of the Orinoco to the interior of Dutch and French
Guiana, and which Raleigh and Keymis made known in Europe at the end
of the 16th century. This chain is broken by the Rupunuri and the
Essequibo, so that one of their tributary streams, the Tavaricuru,
takes its rise on the southern declivity, and the other, the Sibarona,
on the northern. On approaching the Essequibo, the mountains are more
developed towards the south-east, and extend beyond 2 1/2 degrees
north latitude. From this eastern branch of the chain of Pacaraina the
Rio Rupunuri rises near the Cerro Uassari. On the right bank of the
Rio Branco, in a still more southern latitude (between 1 and 2 degrees
north) is a mountainous territory in which the Caritamini, the
Padaviri, the Cababuri (Cavaburis) and the Pacimoni take their source,
from east to west. This western branch of the mountains of Pacaraina
separates the basin of Rio Branco from that of the Upper Orinoco, the
sources of which are probably not found east of the meridian of 66 15
minutes: it is linked with the mountains of Unturan and Yumariquin,
situated south-east of the mission of Esmeralda. Thence it results
that, while on the west of the Cassiquiare, between that river, the
Atabapo, and the Rio Negro, we find only vast plains, in which rise
some little hills and insulated rocks; real spurs stretch eastward of
the Cassiquiare, from north-west to south-east, and form a continued
mountainous territory as far as 2 degrees north latitude.
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