V 



"• A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANA8 



CHAPTEE I 



The Orinoco and its tributaries, the Ventuari, Caura, and Caroni — El 

 Dorado — The Caura and Merevari — Headless men of the Caura— The 

 tonca-bean tree — The tonca-bean industry — A trip to the Caura. 

 arranged. 



If we look at a map of Venezuela, we shall observe that 

 the whole country, with the exception of a small portion 

 on the northern seaboard, is drained by the Orinoco. 

 This huge artery, which rises somewhere on the confines 

 of Brazil, in a range of mountains vaguely marked on 

 maps as the Serrania de Parime, forms in its course a 

 gigantic fishhook-like bend before flowing in an almost 

 straight line towards the east to fall into the Atlantic. 

 On its right bank, and rising in the region contained 

 within the bend, three important rivers — the Ventuari, 

 the Caura, and the Caroni — flow into the Orinoco. The 

 sources of these tributaries are not far from each other. 

 In the case of the Ventuari and the Caura in particular, 

 the headwaters of both streams are so close together that 

 a journey up one river and down the other would not 

 present any insurmountable difficulties, but these courses 

 are in directions so divergent that the points where their 

 waters are lost in the brown flood of their mighty parent 

 lie more than 500 miles apart. Quite a number of smaller 



