194 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



been given the names of the Curata nation." (Reisen in Guiana und 

 am Orinoco, s. 451.) 



( 9 ) p. 174. "Fabulous lake origin of the Orinoco" 

 The lakes of these regions (some of which have had their real ske 

 much exaggerated by theoretical geographers, while the existence of 

 others is purely imaginary,) may be divided into two groups. The 

 first of these groups comprises the lakes, whether real or imaginary, 

 placed between Esmeralda (the easternmost mission on the Upper 

 Orinoco) and the Rio Branco; and the second, those assumed 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, shows that the question of whether there is yet a Lake 

 Parime east of the Rio Branco, other than the Lake Amucu, seen 

 by Hortsmann, Santos, Colonel Barata, and Schomburgk, has no- 

 thing whatever to do with the problem of the sources of the Orinoco. 

 As the name of my friend, the former director of the hydrographic 

 office at Madrid, Don Felipe Bauza, is deservedly of great weight in 

 geography, the impartiality which ought to preside over every scien- 

 tific investigation makes me feel it a duty to recall that this learned 

 man was inclined to the view, that there must be lakes west of the 

 Rio Branco and not far from the sources of the Orinoco. He wrote 

 to me from London, a short time before his death : " I wish you 

 were here, that I might converse with you on the subject of the 

 geography of the Upper Orinoco, which has occupied you so much. 

 I have been so fortunate as to rescue from entire destruction the 

 papers of the general of marine, Don Jose' Solano, father of the 

 Solano who perished in go melancholy a manner at Cadiz. These 

 documents relate to the boundary division between the Spaniards 

 and the Portuguese, with which the elder Solano, had been charged, 

 in conjunction with Chef d'Escadron Yturriaga and Don Yicente 

 Doz, since 1754. In all these plans and sketches I see a Laguna 

 Parime, represented sometimes as the source of the Orinoco, and 

 sometimes quite detached from that river. Are we, then, to admit 

 the existence of another lake north-east of Esmeralda ?" 



Loffling, the celebrated pupil of Linnaeus, came to Cumana as the 

 botanist of the boundary expedition above alluded to. After tra- 



