CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 161 



of the noblest forms of the palm-tree, the Piriguao (10), 

 whose smooth stem, which is nearly 70 feet in height, is 

 adorned with delicate flag-like leaves having curled margins. 

 I know no palm which bears equally large and beautifully 

 coloured fruits. They resemble peaches in their blended 

 tints of yellow and crimson. Seventy or eighty of these form 

 one enormous cluster, of which each stem annually ripens 

 three. This noble tree might be termed the peach- palm. 

 Its fleshy fruit, owing to the extreme luxuriance of vegetation, 

 is generally devoid of seed; and it yields the natives a nu- 

 tritious and farinaceous article of food which, like the ba- 

 nana and the potato, is capable of being prepared in many 

 different ways. 



To this point, that is, as far as the mouth of the Guaviare, 

 the Orinoco flows along the southern declivity of the chain of 

 the Parime. From its left bank, across the equator, and as 

 far as the parallel of 15 c south kit., extends the boundless 

 wooded plain of the river Amazon. At San Fernando de Ata- 

 bapo the Orinoco, turning off abruptly in a northerly direc- 

 tion, intersects a portion of the mountain chain itself. Here 

 are the great waterfalls of Atnres and Maypures, and here the 

 bed of the river is everywhere contracted by colossal masses of 

 rocks, which give it the appearance of being divided by natural 

 dams into separate reservoirs. 



At the entrance of the Meta stands, in the midst of an 

 enormous whirlpool, an isolated rock, which the natives very 

 aptly term the "P.ock of Patience," because when the 

 waters are low, it sometimes retards for two whole days 

 the ascent of the navigator. Here the Orinoco, biting deep 

 into its shores, forms picturesque rocky bays. Opposite the 

 Indian mission of Carichana, the traveller is surprised by a 

 most remarkable prospect. Involuntarily his eye is arrested 

 by a steep granite rock, "El Mogote de Cocuyza," a cubi- 

 form mass, which rises precipitously to a height of more than 

 200 feet • and whose summit is crowned with a luxuriant forest. 



M 



