SLIGHT SLOPE OF THE RIVER. 493 



destitute of animals capable of furnishing it*; but hovv can 

 we avoid being astonished at this indifference in the 

 immense Chinese population, living in great part beyond 

 the tropics, and in the same latitude with the nomad and 

 pastoral tribes of central Asia ? If the Chinese have ever 

 been a pastoral people, how have they lost the tastes and 

 habits so intimately connected with that state, which 

 precedes agricultural institutions ? These questions are 

 interesting with respect both to the history of the nations 

 of oriental Asia, and to the ancient communications that 

 are supposed to have existed between that part of the world 

 and the north of Mexico. 



We went down the Orinoco in two days, from Carichana 

 to the mission of Uruana, after having again passed the 

 celebrated strait of Baraguan. "We stopped several times to 

 determine the velocity of the river, and its temperature at 

 the surface, which was 27*4 . The velocity was found to 

 be two feet in a second (sixty-two toises in 3' 6"), in places 

 where the bed of the Orinoco was more than twelve thou- 

 sand feet broad, and from ten to twelve fathoms deep. The 

 slope of the river is in fact extremely gentle from the Great 

 Cataracts to Angostura ; and, if a barometric measurement 

 were wanting, the difference of height might be determined 

 by approximation, by measuring from time to time the 

 velocity of the stream, and the extent of the section in 

 breadth and depth. "We had some observations of the stars 

 at Uruana. I found the latitude of the mission to be 7 

 8'; but the results from different stars left a doubt of 

 more than 1'. The stratum of mosquitos, which hovered 

 over the ground, was so thick that I could not succeed in 

 rectifying properly the artificial horizon. I tormented my- 



* The rein deer are not domesticated in Greenland as they are in 

 Lapland ; and the Esquimaux care little for their milk. The bisons 

 taken very young, accustom themselves, on the west of the Alleghanies, 

 to graze with herds of European cows. The females in some districts of 

 India yield a little milk, but the natives have never thought of milking 

 them. What is the origin of that fabulous story related by Gotuara 

 (chap. 43, p. 36). according to which the first Spanish navigators saw, on 

 the coast of South Carolina, " stags led to the savannahs by herdsmen ?" 

 The female bisons, according to Mr. Buchanan and the philosophical 

 historian of the Indian Archipelago, Mr. Crawford, yield more milk than 

 common cows. 



