420 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



[June 1, 1912. 



would not work; the mattress was thin and the spring sagged 

 sadly ; but sleep soon came in spite of the enthusiastic Spanish 

 conversazione going on in the dining saloon. 



At midnight as 

 the boat entered 

 the rough water 

 at the bar that 

 guards the 

 mouth of the 

 great river there 

 was a grand 

 awakening, but 

 it did not last 

 long, as very 

 soon smooth wa- 

 ter was reached, 

 and quiet reigned 

 for a time. 



The "deckers" 

 began to chatter 

 at daybreak, and 

 there was noth- 

 ing for it but to 

 get up, take a 

 shower and wait 

 for coffee. Once 

 on deck the glory 

 of the morning 

 amply repaid the 

 loss of sleep. The 



boat was slipping quietly and rapidly through a placid stream 

 not more than 300 yards wide, and except for the absence of 

 palms, it might have been the "narrows" of the .Amazon. There 



Fort at Gu.\v.\na la Vieja. 



gravely at us. They were grotesquely colored, red and black, 

 and were said to be the '"howlers" which greet the rising sun 

 with roars that would fill a lion with envy. 



Occasionally .-i 

 palm - thatched 

 luit was to be 

 seen ten fee; 

 above low water 

 mark, and, ac- 

 cording to some 

 of the passen- 

 gers, an equal 

 number of feet 

 below high wa- 

 ter. 



Fringing the 

 stream were oc- 

 casional plant- 

 ings of native 

 corn and bana- 

 nas. The river 

 banks average 

 from 6 to 10 ft. 

 high, and tlie 

 country, as a 

 rule, was well 

 forested. 'I'lie 



river was low, as 

 it was the dry 

 season, and in 

 many places the lead was kept going, as boats frequently get 

 caught on the sand bars. I had pictured the Orinoco as a muddy 

 stream running through swampy lowlands. In reality it showed 



BiRDSEVE View of Ciudad Bolivar. 



was another difference in the abundant bird life — parrots, great 

 flocks of macaws, white swans, wading birds — white, gray and 

 blue. So near did we run to the shore that the masses of bloom 



Water Front, Ciudad Bolivar. 



Cutting Down Balata Tree. 



that decked the trees could be plainly seen in all of tlieir varied more sand than mud banks, and indeed the higher up we got, 

 color and beauty. Once we passed close to a giant tree, in the the more pronounced were the great sand spits that project out 

 upper branches of which four great monkeys sat and gazed into the widening channel. 



