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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Toward The South,
The Tacutu And The Urariquera Form Together The Famous Rio Parima, Or
Rio Branco.
This isthmus, between the branches of the Rio Essequibo and the Rio
Branco (that is, between the Rupunuwini on one side, and the Pirara,
the Mahu, and the Uraricuera or Rio Parima on the other), may be
considered as the classical soil of the Dorado of Parima.
The rivers
at the foot of the mountains of Pacaraimo are subject to frequent
overflowings. Above Santa Rosa, the right bank of the Urariapara, a
tributary stream of the Uraricuera, is called el Valle de la
Inundacion. Great pools are also found between the Rio Parima and the
Xurumu. These are marked on the maps recently constructed in Brazil,
which furnish the most ample details of those countries. More to the
west, the Cano Pirara, a tributary stream of the Mahu, issues from a
lake covered with rushes. This is the lake Amucu described by Nicolas
Hortsmann, and respecting which some Portuguese of Barcelos, who had
visited the Rio Branco (Rio Parima or Rio Paravigiana), gave me
precise notions during my stay at San Carlos del Rio Negro. The lake
Amucu is several leagues broad, and contains two small islands, which
Santos heard called Islas Ipomucena. The Rupunuwini (Rupunury), on the
banks of which Hortsmann discovered rocks covered with hieroglyphical
figures, approaches very near this lake, but does not communicate with
it. The portage between the Rupunuwini and the Mahu is farther north,
where the mountain of Ucucuamo* rises, the natives still call the
mountain of gold.
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