158 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



a mountain chain, which stretches between the parallels of 4 

 and 5 north lat., from French Guiana, in a westerly direction 

 towards the Andes of New Granada. The sources of the 

 Orinoco have never been visited by any European (6), nor 

 even by any natives who have held intercourse with Europeans. 



When, in the summer of 1800, we ascended the Upper 

 Orinoco, we passed the mission of Esmeralda, and reached the 

 mouths of the Sodomoni and the Guapo. Here soars high 

 above the clouds, the mighty peak of the Yeonnamari or 

 Duida; a mountain which presents one of the grandest spec- 

 tacles in the natural scenery of the tropical world. Its alti- 

 tude, according to my trigonometrical measurement, is 8278 

 (8823 English) feet above the level of the sea. Its southern 

 slope is a treeless grassy plain, redolent with the odour of 

 pine-apples, whose fragrance scents the humid evening air. 

 Among lowly meadow plants rise the juicy stems of the 

 anana, whose golden yellow fruit gleams from the midst of a 

 bluish green diadem of leaves. Where the mountain springs 

 break forth from beneath the grassy covering, rise isolated 

 groups of lofty fan-palms, whose leaves, in this torrid region, 

 are never stirred by a cooling breeze. 



To the east of the Duida mountain, begins a thicket of wild 

 cacao trees, among which are found the celebrated almond 

 tree, Bertholletia excelsa, the most luxurious product of a 

 tropical vegetation (7). Here the Indians collect colossal 

 stalks of grass, whose joints measure upwards of 18 feet from 

 knot to knot, which they use as blow-pipes for the discharge 

 of their arrows (8). Some Franciscan monks have penetrated 

 as far as the mouth of the Chiguire, where the river is already 

 so narrow that the natives have suspended over it, near the 

 waterfall of the Guaharibes, a bridge woven of the stems of 

 twining plants. The Guaicas, of palish complexion and short 

 stature, armed with poisoned arrows, oppose all further 

 progress eastward. 



Therefore, all that has been advanced to prove that the 



