MOUT1I OF TUB 





CHAPTEK XIX. 



Junction of the Apure and the Orinoco. Mountains of Encaramada. 

 Uruana. Baraguan. Carichana. Mouth of the Meta. Island uf 

 Panuruana. 



ON leaving the Rio Apure we found ourselves in a coun- 

 try presenting a totally different aspect. An immense plain 

 of' water stretched before us like a lake, as far as we could 

 see. White-topped waves rose to the height of several 

 feet, from the conflict of the breeze and the current. The 

 air resounded no longer with the piercing cries of herons, 

 flamingos, and spoonbills, crossing in long files from one 

 shore to the other. Our eyes sought in vain those water- 

 fowls, the habits of which vary in each tribe. All nature 

 appeared less animated. Scarcely could we discover in the 

 hollows of the waves a few large crocodiles, cutting obliquely, 

 by the help of their long tails, the surface of the agitated 

 waters. The horizon was bounded by a zone of forests, 

 which nowhere reached so far as the bed of the river. A 

 vast beach, constantly parched by the heat of the sun, desert 

 and bare as the shores of the sea, resembled at a distance, 

 from the effect of the mirage, pools of stagnant water. 

 These sandy shores, far from fixing the limits of the river, 

 render them uncertain, by enlarging or contracting them 

 alternately, according to the variable action of the solar 

 rays. 



In these scattered features of the landscape, in this cha- 

 racter of solitude and of greatness, we recognize the course 

 of the Orinoco, one of the most majestic rivers of the New 

 World. The water, like the land, displays everywhere a 

 characteristic and peculiar aspect. The bed of the Orinoco 

 resembles not the bed of the Meta, the Guaviare, the Rio 

 Negro, or the Amazon. These differences do not depend 

 altogether on the breadth or the velocity of the current; 

 they are connected with a multitude of impressions which 

 it is easier to perceive upon the spot than to define with 

 precision. Tl.us, the mere form of the waves, the tint of 



