i08 BlffGCLARLY-FOEMED KOCKS. 



light east wind in the upper regions of the air. We recog- 

 nized in these signs an approaching change of the weather ; 

 find were unwilling to go far from the mouth of the Cassi- 

 quiare, in the hope of observing during the following night 

 the passage of some star over the meridian. "We descried 

 the Cafio Daquiapo to the south, the Guachaparu to the 

 north, and a few miles further, the rapids of Cananivaeari. 

 The velocity of the current being 6' 3 feet in a second, we 

 had to struggle against the turbulent waves of the Baudal. 

 We went on shore, and M. Bonpland discovered within a 

 few steps of the beach a majestic almendron, or Bertholletia 

 excelsa. The Indians assured us, that the existence of this 

 valuable plant of the banks of the Cassiquiare was unknown 

 at San Francisco Solano, "Vasiva, and Esmeralda. They did 

 not think that the tree we saw, which was more than sixty 

 feet high, had been sown by some passing traveller. Expe- 

 riments made at San Carlos have shown how rare it is to 

 succeed in causing the bertholletia to germinate, on account 

 of its ligneous pericarp, and the oil contained in its nut, 

 which so readily becomes rancid. Perhaps this tree denoted 

 the existence of a forest of bertholletia in the inland country 

 on the east and north-east. We know, at least, with cer- 

 tainty, that this fine tree grows wild in the third degree of 

 latitude, in the Cerro de Guanaya. The plants that live in 

 society have seldom marked limits, and it happens, that 

 before we reach a palmar or apinar* we find solitary palm- 

 trees and pines. They are somewhat like colonists that 

 have advanced in the midst of a country peopled with diffe- 

 rent vegetable productions. 



Four miles distant from the rapids of Cunamvacari, rocks 

 of the strangest form rise in the plains. First appears a 

 narrow wall eighty feet high, and perpendicular ; and at the 

 southern extremity of this wall are two turrets, the courses 

 of which are of granite, and nearly horizontal. The grouping 

 of the rocks of Guanari is so symmetrical that they might 

 be taken for the ruins of an ancient edifice. Are they the 

 remains of islets in the midst of an inland sea, that covered 

 the flat ground between the Sierra Parime and the Parecia 



* Two Spanish words, which, according to a Latin form, denote I 

 forest of paloi-trees (paluietuaO and of pines 



