CtT. V. SOUTH AMERICA. s^^ 



brooks, and consequently discharginp; a quantity of 

 water, may have an equal claim to be called the prin- 

 cipal source. But without confidently determining^ 

 this intricate point, Í shall first consider the sources 

 of those which' run into it from the more remote di- 

 stances, and next those which precipitate themselves 

 down several cascades formed by the crags of the 

 Andes, and, after being augmented by others it re- 

 ceives, join the Maranon in a more copious stream ; 

 leaving it to the reader to determine which is the ori- 

 ginal source. 



'ÍHE most received opinion, concerning the re- 

 motest source of the river Maranon, is that which 

 places it in the jurisdiction of Tarma, issuing from 

 the lake of Lauricocha, near the city of Guanaco, in 

 II deg. S. lat. whence it directs its course S. almost 

 to 12 ÓQg. through the country belonging to this 

 jurisdiction ; and, forming insensibly a circuit, flows 

 eastward through the country of Juaxa : where, after 

 being precipitated from the east side of the Cordillera 

 of the Andes, proceeds northward; and, leaving the 

 jurisdictions of Mayabamba and Chacha- povas, it 

 continues its course to the city of Jaen, the lat. of " 

 which in the foregoing chapter has been placed in 5 

 áeg. 21 min. There, by asecond circuit, it runs to- 

 ward the E. in a continual direction ; till at length it 

 falls into the ocean, where its mouth is of such an 

 enormous breadth, that it reaches from the equinoc- 

 tial to beyond the first deg. of north lat. Its distance 

 from Lauricocha lake to Jaen, its windings included, 

 is about 200 leagues ; and this city being 30 deg. 

 to the W. of its mouth, is 600 leagues from it^ which, * 

 with the several circuits and windings, may without 

 excess be computed at 900 such leagues : so that its 

 whole course, from Lauricocha to its influx into the 

 ocean, is at least iioo leagues. 



Yet the branch which issues from Lauricocha is 

 not the only one flowing from these parts into the Ma- 

 ranon ; 



