THEIR DISGCJSTING VORVCITT. 233 



Orinoco on the vest. The Jesuit Fathers had already 

 formed a mission on this spot, and bearing the same name. 

 No tribe is more difficult to fix to the soil than the Gua- 

 hibos. They would rather feed on stale fish, scolopendras, 

 and worms, than cultivate a little spot of ground. The 

 other Indians say, that "a Guahibo eats everything that 

 exists, both on and under the ground." 



In ascending the Orinoco more to the south, the heat, far 

 from increasing, became more bearable. The air in the day 

 was at 26 or 27'5 ; and at night, at 237. The water of 

 the Orinoco retained its habitual temperature of 27*7. The 

 torment of the mosquitos augmented severely, notwithstand- 

 ing the decrease of heat. We never suffered so much from 

 them as at San Borja. We could neither speak nor uncover 

 our faces without having our mouths and noses filled with 

 insects. We were surprised not to find the thermometer 

 at 35 or 36 ; the extreme irritation of the skin made ua 

 believe that the air was scorching. We passed the night on 

 the beach of Guaripo. The fear of the little caribe fish 

 prevented us from bathing. The crocodiles we had met 

 with this day were all of an extraordinary size, from twenty- 

 two to twenty-four feet. 



Our sufferings from the zancudos made us depart at five 

 o'clock on the morning of the 14th. There are fewer insects 

 in the strata of air lying immediately on the river, than 

 near the edge of the forests. We stopped to breakfast 

 at the island of Guachaco, or Vachaco, where the granite is 

 immediately covered by a formation of sandstone, or con- 

 glomerate. This sandstone contains fragments of quartz, 

 and even of feldspar, cemented by indurated clay. It exhi- 

 bits little veins of brown iron-ore, which separate in laminae, 

 or plates, of one line in thickness. We had already found 

 these plates on the shores between Encaramada and Bara- 

 guan, where the missionaries had sometimes taken them for 

 an ore of gold, and sometimes for tin. It is probable, that 

 this secondary formation occupied formerly a larger space. 

 Having passed the mouth of the Rio Parueni, beyond which 

 the Maco Indians dwell, we spent the night on the island of 

 Panumana. I could with difficulty take the altitudes of 

 Can opus, in order to fix the longitude of the point, near 

 which the river suddenly turns towards the west. The 



