PREFACE 



I HAVE been asked by Mr, Andre to write a brief preface 

 to the following account of his journeys up the Caura 

 affluent of the Orinoco, and feel that I cannot well refuse 

 to do so, especially as the author declares that I am in a 

 measure personally responsible for the appearance of the 

 narrative in its present form. But if the reader will turn 

 to the narrative itself, he will quickly discover that no 

 preface is needed to proclaim its merits. In the Geo- 

 graphical Journal for September 1902, a paper by Mr. 

 Andre summarised the results of his latest journey and 

 described his ascent of Mount Turagua. But Mr. Andre 

 is still more a naturalist than a geographer, and in 

 particular he has made valuable additions to our know- 

 ledge of the bird life of the great Venezuelan forests, 

 as Dr. Hartert of the Tring Museum has abundantly 

 testified. 



It is not, however, by any means only the scientific 

 student who will find much to interest him in Mr. Andre's 

 narrative. In no region of the world is travelling more 

 full of incident, more prolific in perilous adventure, than 

 in the dense tropical forests and along the mighty streams 

 of the still practically virgin areas which form so large a 

 part of the South American continent. Mr. Andre him- 

 self suffered shipwreck in the Arichi rapids of the Caura 



