DIFFICULTY OF LANDING. 421 



toiscg, that is, to a subalpine region the climate of which, 

 between the tropics, resembles that of the south of Spain. 

 The Bambusa latifolia seems to be peculiar to the basins of 

 the Upper Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, and the Amazon ; it 

 is a social plant, like all the gramma of the family of the 

 uastoides ; but in that part of Spanish Guiana which wt; 

 traversed it does not grow in those large masses which the 

 Spanish Americans call yuadales, or forests of bamboos. 



Our first resting-place above Vasiva was easily arranged. 

 A\ r e found a little nook of dry ground, free from shrubs, to 

 the south of the Cano Curamuni, in a spot where we saw 

 some capuchin monkeys.* They were recognizable by their 

 black beards and their gloomy and sullen air, and were 

 walking slowly on the horizontal branches of a genipa. 

 During the five following nights our passage was the more 

 troublesome in proportion as we approached the bifurcation 

 of the Orinoco. The luxuriance of the vegetation in- 

 creases in a manner of which it is difficult even for those 

 acquainted with the aspect of the forests between the tropics, 

 to form an idea. There is no longer a bank : a palisade of 

 tufted trees forms the margin of the river. You see a canal 

 two hundred toises broad, bordered by two enormous walls, 

 clothed with lianas and foliage. We often tried to land, 

 but without success. Towards sunset we sailed along for 

 an hour seeking to discover, not an opening (since none 

 exists), but a spot less wooded, where our Indians by means 

 of the hatchet and manual labour, could clear space enough 

 for a resting-place for twelve or thirteen persons. It was 

 impossible to pass the night in the canoe; the mosquitos, 

 which tormented us during the day, accumulated toward 

 evening beneath the toldo covered with palm-leaves, which 

 served to shelter us from the rain. Our hands and faces 

 had never before been so much swelled. Father Zea, who 

 had till then boasted of having in his missions of the cataracts 

 the largest and fiercest (las mas feroces) mosquitos, at 

 length gradually acknowledged that the sting of the insects 

 of the Cassiquiare was the most painful he had ever felt. 

 AVe experien ~.ed great difficulty, amid a thick forest, in 

 finding wood i o make a fire, the branches of the trees in 



* Simla cbiropote*. 



