ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 199 



are obliterated, and all appears one vast lake. But the fable of the 

 Dorado of the Parime, and of the White Sea or Lake of the Parime, 

 belongs historically, as I endeavored to show in another work thirty 

 years ago, to an entirely different part of Guiana, namely, to the 

 country south of the Pacaraima mountains ; and originated in the 

 shining appearance of the micaceous rocks of the Ucucuamo, the 

 name of the Rio Parime (Rio Branco), the overflowings of the 

 tributaries of that. river, and especially the existence of the Lake of 

 Amucu, which is in the vicinity of the Rio Rupunuwini or Rupunuri, 

 and is connected through the Pirara with the Rio Parime. 



I have seen with pleasure that the travels of Sir Robert Schom- 

 burgk have fully confirmed these early views. The part of his map 

 which gives the course of the Essequibo and the Rupunuri is entirely 

 new, and of great geographical importance. It places the Pacaraima 

 chain in 3 52' to 4 north latitude (I had given it 4 to 4 10'), 

 and makes it reach the confluence of the Essequibo and the Rupu- 

 nuri, in 3 57' N. lat. and 60 23' W. long, from Paris (58 1' from 

 Greenwich). I had placed this spot half a degree too far to the 

 north. Sir Robert Schomburgk calls the last-named river Rupu- 

 nuni, according to the pronunciation of the Macusis ; he gives as 

 synonymes of Rupuniri, Rupunuwini and Opununy, the Carib tribes 

 in these districts having much difficulty in articulating the sound of 

 the letter r. The situation of Lake Amucu and its relations to the 

 Mahu (Maou) and Tacutu (Tacoto) are quite in accordance with my 

 map of Columbia in 1825. We agree equally well respecting the 

 latitude of the lake, which I gave 3 35', and which he finds to be 

 3 33' ; but the Cano Pirara (Pirarara), which connects the Lake of 

 Amucu with the Rio Branco, flows from it to the north, instead of 

 to the west, as I had supposed. The Sibarana of my map, of which 

 Hortsmann places the source near a fine mine of rock-crystal, a little 

 to. the north of the Cerro Ucucuamo, is the Siparuni of Schomburkg's 

 map. His Waa-Ekuru is the Tavaricuru of the Portuguese geo- 

 grapher Pontes Leme; it is the tributary of the Rupunuri, which 

 approaches' nearest to the Lake of Amucu. 



The following remarks from the narrative of Robert Schomburgk 

 throw some light on the subject before us. " The Lake of Amucu," 

 says this traveller, " is incontestably the nucleus of the Lake of Pa- 



