310 VARIETIES OF WATER. 



embroiling farther a nomenclature of rivers so arbi- 

 trarily fixed, I will not propose new denominations. I shall 

 continue, with Father Caulin and the Spanish geographers, 

 to call the river Esmeralda the Orinoco, or Upper Orinoco ; 

 but I must observe that if the Orinoco, from San Fernando 

 de Atabapo as far as the delta which it forms opposite the 

 island of Trinidad, were regarded as the continuance of 

 the Bio Cruaviare ; and if that part of the Upper Orinoco 

 between the Esmeralda and the mission of San Fernando 

 were considered a tributary stream; the Orinoco would 

 preserve, from the savannahs of San Juan de los Llanos 

 and the eastern declivity of the Andes to its mouth, a more 

 uniform and natural direction, that from south-west to 

 north-east. 



The Bio Paragua, or that part of the Orinoco east of 

 the mouth of the G-uaviare, has clearer, more transparent, 

 and purer water than the part of the Orinoco below San 

 Fernando. The waters of the Guaviare, on the contrary, 

 are white and turbid ; they have the same taste, according 

 to the Indians, (whose organs of sense are extremely deli- 

 cate and well practised,) as the waters of the Orinoco near 

 the Great Cataracts. " Bring me the waters of three or 

 four great rivers of these countries," an old Indian of the 

 mission of Javita said to us ; " on tasting each of them I 

 will tell you, without fear of mistake, whence it was taken ; 

 whether it comes from a white or black river; the Orinoco 

 or the Atabapo, the Paragua or the Gruaviare." The great 

 crocodiles and porpoises (toninas) which are alike common 

 in the Bio Guaviare and the Lower Orinoco, are entirely 

 wanting, as we were told, in the Bio Paragua *or Upper 

 ^riinoco, between San Fernando and the Esmeralda). These 



are very remarkable differences in the nature of the waters, 

 and the distribution of animals. The Indians do not fail 

 to mention them, when they would prove to travellers that 

 the Upper Orinoco, to the east of San Fernando, is a 

 distinct river which falls into the Orinoco, and that the 

 real origin of the latter must be sought in the sources of 

 the G-uaviare. 



Acesines. The Sutlej or Hysudrns forms, together with the Beyah 01 



Gurra. These are the beautiful regions of the 



brated from the time of Alexander to the 





