298 POSTAGES ON THE RIVERS. 



manganese, seem to justify this conjecture. They are fcund 

 on all the stones, far from the mission, and indicate the 

 former abode of the waters. In going up the river all 

 merchandise is discharged at the confluence of the Bio 

 Toparo and the Orinoco. The boats are entrusted to the 

 natives, who have so perfect a knowledge of the raudal, that 

 they have a particular name for every step. They conduct 

 the boats as far as the mouth of the Cameji, where the 

 danger is considered as past. 



I will here describe the cataract of Quituna or Maypurea 

 as it appeared at the two periods when I examined it, in 

 going down and up the river. It is formed, like that of 

 Mapara or Atures, by an archipelago of islands, which, to 

 the length of three thousand toises, fill the bed of the river ; 

 and by rocky dikes, which join the islands together. The 

 most remarkable of these dikes, or natural dams, are Pnri- 

 marimi, Manimi, and the Leap of the Sardine (Salto de la 

 Sardina). I name them in the order in which I saw them 

 in succession from south to north. The last of these three 

 stages is near nine feet high, and forms by its breadth a 

 magnificent cascade. I must here repeat, however, that the 

 turbulent shock of the precipitated and broken waters de- 

 pends not so much on the absolute height of each step or 

 dike, as upon the multitude of counter-currents, the group- 

 ing of the islands and shoals, that He at the foot of the 

 raudalitos or partial cascades, and the contraction of the 

 channels, which often do not leave a free navigable passage 

 of twenty or thirty feet. The eastern part of the cataract 

 of Maypures is much more dangerous than the western ; 

 and therefore the Indian pilots prefer the left bank of the 

 river to conduct the boats down or up. Unfortunately, in 

 the season of low waters, this bank remains partly dry, and 

 recourse must be had to the process of portage; that is, the 

 boats are obliged to be dragged on cylinders, or round logs. 



To command a comprehensive view of these stupendous 

 scenes, the spectator must be stationed on the little moun- 

 tain of Manimi, a granitic ridge, which rises from the 

 savannah, north of the church of the mission, and is itself 

 only a continuation of the ridges of which the raudalito of 

 Manimi is composed. We often visited this mountain, foi 

 we were never weary of gazing on this astonishing spectacle. 



