BAUDAL OF CANUCAUI. 259 



they break against the rocks. The jagttas and cucuritox 

 with plumy leaves, with which all the islands are covered, 

 seem like groves of palm-trees rising from the foamy surface 

 of the waters. The Indians, whose task it is to pass the boats 

 empty over the raudales, distinguish every shelf, and every 

 rock, by a particular name. On entering from the south you 

 find first the Leap of the Toucan (Salto del Piapoco) ; and 

 between the islands of Avaguri and Javariveni is the Eaudal 

 of Javariveni, where, on our return from Bio Negro, we 

 passed some hours amid the rapids, waiting for our boat. A 

 great part of the river appeared dry. Blocks of granite are 

 heaped together, as in the moraines which the glaciers of 

 Switzerland drive before them. The river is ingulfed in 

 caverns ; and in one of these caverns we heard the water roll 

 at once over our heads and beneath our feet. The Orinoco 

 seems divided into a multitude of arms or torrents, each of 

 which seeks to force a passage through the rocks. We 

 were struck with the little water to be seen in the bed of 

 the river, the frequency of subterraneous falls, and the 

 tumult of the waters breaking on the rocks in foam. 



Cuncta fremunt undis ; ac multo murmure mentis 

 Spumeus invictis canescit fluctibus amnis.* 



Having passed the Baudal of Javariveni (I name here 

 only the principal falls) we come to the Eaudal of Canucari, 

 formed by a ledge of rocks uniting the islands of Surupa- 

 mana and Uirapuri. "When the dikes, or natural dams, are 

 only two or three feet high, the Indians venture to descend 

 them in boats. In going up the river, they swim on before, 

 and if, after many vain efforts, they succeed in fixing a rope 

 to one of the points of rock that crown the dike, they then, 

 by means of that rope, draw the bark to the top of the 

 raudal. The bark, during this arduous task, often fills with 

 water ; at other times it is stove against the rocks, and the 

 Indians, their bodies bruised and bleeding, extricate them- 

 selves with difficulty from the whirlpools, and reach, bj 

 swimming, the nearest island. When the steps or rocky 

 barriers are very high, and entirely bar the river, light boats 

 are carried on shore, and with the help of branches of tre<Ji 



Lucan, Pharsalia, lib. x, v. 132. 



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