CATARACTS OP THE ORINOCO. 177 



aspect shine with dazzling whiteness high above the thickets -from 

 amidst which they rise. 



It is in this region, after receiving the Apure, that the Orinoco 

 leaves the granitic chain of mountains, and flows eastward to the 

 Atlantic, dividing the impenetrable forests of Guiana from the 

 grassy plains on which the vault of heaven seems everywhere to 

 rest as on the horizon of the ocean. Thus, the elevated cluster of 

 the Parime mountains, which occupies the entire space between the 

 sources of the Jao and the Caura, is surrounded on three sides, to 

 the south, to the west, and to the north, by the Orinoco. Below 

 Carichana the course of the river is uninterrupted by rocks or rapids 

 to its mouth, excepting at the whirlpool of the Boca del Infierno 

 (Hell's mouth) near Muitaco, where, however, the rocks which occa- 

 sion the rapid do not extend across the entire bed of the river as at 

 Atures and Maypures. In these lower parts of the river, in the 

 vicinity of the sea, the only danger feared by the boatmen is that 

 of encountering the great natural rafts, consisting of trees torn from 

 the banks by the swelling of the river, against which canoes are 

 often wrecked during the night. These rafts, covered like meadows 

 with flowering water plants, remind the spectator of the floating 

 gardens of the Mexican lakes. 



After this rapid review of the course of the Orinoco, and of its 

 general relations to the surrounding country, I pass to the descrip- 

 tion of the Falls of Maypures and Atures. 



Between the sources of the rivers Sipapo and Yentuari a granite 

 ridge projects from the elevated mountain group of Cunavami, and 

 advances far to the west towards the mountains of Uniama. Four 

 streams, which may be said to mark the limits of the Cataracts of 

 Maypures, descend from this ridge ; two, the Sipapo and the Sana- 

 riapo, on the eastern side of the Orinoco; and two, the Cameji and 

 the Toparo, on its western side. Near the missionary village of May- 

 pures the mountains retire and form a wide bay open to the south-west. 



The foaming stream flows at the present time at the foot of the 

 eastern mountain declivity, and far to the west we recognize the 

 ancient bank now forsaken by the water. A grass-covered plain, 

 only about thirty feet above the present highest level of the river, 



