180 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



Unlike the grander falls of Niagara (which are 140 French or 

 150 English feet high) the " Cataracts of Maypures" are not formed 

 by the single precipitous descent of a vast mass of waters, nor are 

 they a narrows" or passes through which the river rushes with 

 accelerated velocity, as in the Pongo of Manseriche in the River of 

 the Amazons. The Cataracts of Maypures consist of a countless 

 number of little cascades succeeding each other like steps. The 

 "Raudal" (the name given by the Spaniards to this species of 

 cataract) is formed by numerous islands and rocks which so restrict 

 the bed of the river, that out of a breadth of 8000 (8526 E.) feet 

 there often only remains an open channel of twenty feet in width. 

 The eastern side is now much more inaccessible and dangerous than 

 the western. 



At the confluence of the Cameji with the Orinoco, goods are un- 

 laden, in order that the empty canoe, or, as it is here called, the 

 Piragua, may be conveyed by Indians well acquainted with the 

 Raudal to the mouth of the Toparo, where the danger is considered 

 to be past. Where the separate rocks or steps (each of which is 

 designated by a particular name) are not much above two or three 

 feet high, the natives, if descending the stream, venture, remaining 

 themselves in the canoe, to let it go down the falls : if they are as- 

 cending the stream, they leave the boat, swim forward, and when, 

 after many unsuccessful attempts, they have succeeded in casting a 

 rope round the points of rock which rise above the broken water, 

 they draw up their vessel, which is often either overset or entirely 

 filled with water in the course of these laborious proceedings. 



Sometimes, and it is the only case j which gives the natives any 

 uneasiness, the canoe is dashed in pieces against the rocks; the men 

 have then to disengage themselves with bleeding bodies from the 

 wreck and from the whirling force of the torrent, and to gain the 

 shore by swimming. Where the rocky steps are very high and ex- 

 tend across the entire bed of the river, the light boat is brought to 

 land and drawn along the bank by means of branches of trees placed 

 under it as rollers. 



The most celebrated and difficult steps, those of Purimarimi and 

 Manimi, are between nine and ten feet high. I found with astonish- 

 ment, by barometric measurements (geodesical levelling being out of 



