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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It Is Enlarged By The Spurs Of The Rio Beni,* (* The Real
Name Of This Great River, Respecting The Course
Of which geographers
have been so long divided, is Uchaparu, probably water (para) of Ucha;
Peni also signifies river or
Water; for the language of the Maypures
has very many analogies with that of the Moxos; and veni (oueni)
signifies water in Maypure, as una in Moxo. Perhaps the river retained
the name of Maypure, after the Indians who spoke that language had
emigrated northward in the direction of the banks of the Orinoco.)
rich in gem-salt, and composed of several ranges of hills (latitude 8
degrees 11 minutes south) which advance into the plains on the eastern
bank of the Paro. These hills are transformed on our maps into Upper
Cordilleras and Andes of Cuchao. Towards the north the basin of the
Amazon, of which the area (244,000 square leagues) is only one-sixth
less than the area of all Europe, rises in a gentle slope towards the
Sierra Parime. At 68 degrees of west longitude the elevated part of
this Sierra terminates at 3 1/2 degrees north latitude. The group of
little mountains surrounding the source of the Rio Negro, the Inirida
and the Xie (latitude 2 degrees) the scattered rocks between the
Atabapo and the Cassiquiare, appear like groups of islands and rocks
in the middle of the plain. Some of those rocks are covered with signs
or symbolical sculpture. Nations, very different from those who now
inhabit the banks of the Cassiquiare, penetrated into the savannahs;
and the zone of painted rocks, extending more than 150 leagues in
breadth, bears traces of ancient civilization.
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