I 



480 THE CAPAEEO MONKEY. 



abode. Tamepawcis* surrounded the Indian huts; in ono 

 of which we saw a very rare monkey, which inhabits the 

 banks of the Guaviare. This monkey is the caparro, which 

 I have made known in my " Observations on Zoology and 

 comparative Anatomy;" it forms, as Geoffrey believes, a 

 new genus (Lagothrix) between the ateles and the alouates. 

 The hair of this monkey is grey, like that of the marten, 

 and extremely soft to the touch. The ca/parro is distin- 

 guished by a round head, and a mild and agreeable expres- 

 sion of countenance. I believe the missionary Gili is the 

 only author who has made mention before me of this 

 curious animal, around which zoologists begin to group 

 other monkeys of Brazil. Having quitted San Fernando on 

 the 27th of May, we arrived, by help of the rapid current 

 of the Orinoco, in seven hours, at the mouth of the Bio 

 Mataveni. We passed the night in the open air, under the 

 granitic rock El Castillito, which rises in the middle of the 

 river, and the form of which reminded us of the ruin called 

 the Mouse-tower (Mausethurm), on the Rhine, opposite 

 Bingen. Here, as on the banks of the Atabapo, we were 

 struck by the sight of a small species of drosera, having 

 exactly the appearance of the drosera of Europe. 



The Orinoco had sensibly swelled during the night ; and 

 the current, strongly accelerated, bore us, in ten hours, 

 from the mouth of the Mataveni to the Upper Great 

 Cataract, that of Maypures, or Quituna. The distance 

 which we passed over was thirteen leagues. We recalled 

 to mind, with much satisfaction, the scenes where we had 

 reposed in going up the river. We again found the Indians 

 who had accompanied us in our herborizations ; and we 

 visited anew the fine spring that issues from a rock of 

 stratified granite behind the house of the missionary: its 

 temperature was not changed more than 0*3. From the 

 mouth of the Atabapo as far as that of the Apure we 

 seemed to be travelling as through a country which we had 

 long inhabited. We were reduced to the same abstinence ; 

 we were stung by the same mosquitos; but the certainty 

 of reaching in a few weeks the term of our physical 

 Bufferings kept up our spirits. 

 * Not the ourax of Cuvier (Crax pauxi, Linn,), but the Crax alector 



