180 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



the forests of the Upper Orinoco, between the Padamo and 

 the Ocamu, in the vicinity of the mountain of Mapaya, as 

 well as between the rivers Ainaguaca and Gehette.* 



(8) p. 158 "Grass stalks, whose joints measure upwards of 

 eighteen feet from knot to knot.'" 



Robert Schomburgk, when visiting the small mountainous 

 country of the Majonkongs, on his route to Esmeralda, was 

 fortunate enough to determine the species of Arundinaria, 

 which furnishes the material for these blowing-tubes. He 

 says of this plant: " It grows in large tufts, like the bambusa; 

 the first joint rises, in the old cane, without a knot, to a 

 height of from 16 to 17 feet before it begins to bear leaves. 

 The entire height of the Arundinaria, growing at the foot of 

 the great mountain- cluster of Maravaca, is from 30 to 40 feet, 

 with a thickness of scarcely half an inch in diameter. The 

 top is always inclined ; and this species of grass is peculiar to 

 the sandstone mountains between the Ventuari, the Paramu 

 (Padamo), and the Mavaca. The Indian name is Curata, and, 

 therefore, from the excellence of these celebrated long blowing- 

 tubes, the Majonkongs and Guinaus of these districts have 

 acquired the name of the Curata nation, "f 



(9) p. 159 "Fabulous origin of the Orinoco from a lake" 



The lakes of these regions (some of which are wholly 

 imaginary, while the real size of others has been much exag- 

 gerated by theoretical geographers) may be divided into two 

 groups. The first of these groups comprise those situate 

 between Esmeralda (the most easterly mission on the Upper 

 Orinoco), and the Rio Branco; to the second, belong the lakes 

 presumed to exist in the district between the Rio Branco and 

 French, Dutch, and British Guiana. This general view, of 

 which travellers should never lose sight, proves that the ques- 

 tion of whether there is another Lake Parime eastward of the 

 Rio Branco, besides the Lake Amucu, seen by Hortsmann, 

 Santos, Colonel Barata, and Schomburgk, has nothing whatever 

 to do with the problem of the sources of the Orinoco. As 

 the name of my distinguished friend the former Director 

 of the Hydrographic Office at Madrid, Don Felipe Bauza, is 



* Relation historique, t. ii. pp. 474 496, 558 562. 

 t Reisen in Guiana und am Orinoko, 451. 



