TELOCITY OF THE CUHRE5T. 



be surmounted than those of the Danube between Vienna 

 and Linz. We meet with no great bars, no real cataracts, 

 until we get above the Meta. The Upper Orinoco there- 

 fore, with the Cassiquiare and the Rio Negro, forms a parti- 

 cular system of rivers, where the active industry of Angos- 

 tura and the shore of Caracas will remain long unknown. 



I obtained horary angles of the sun in an island in the 

 midst of the Boca del Inflerno, where we had set up our 

 instruments. The longitude of this point according to the 

 chronometer is 67 10' 31*. I attempted to determine the 

 magnetic dip and intensity, but was prevented by a heavj 

 storm of rain. As the sky again became serene in the after- 

 noon, we lay down to rest that night on a vast beach, on the 

 southern bank of the Orinoco, nearly in the meridian of the 

 little town of Muitaco, or Real Corona. I found the latitude 

 by three stars to be 8 0' 26", and the longitude 67 5' 19". 

 When the Observantin monks in 1752 made their first 

 entradas on the territory of the Caribs, they constructed on 

 this spot a small fort. The proximity of the lofty moun- 

 tains of Araguacais renders Muitaco one of the most healthy 

 places on the Lower Orinoco. There Iturriaga took up his 

 abode in 1756, to repose after the fatigues of the expedition 

 of the boundaries ; and as he attributed his recovery to this 

 Hot rather than humid climate, the town, or more properly 

 the village, of Eeal Corona took the name of Pueblo del Puerto 

 sano. Going down the Orinoco more to the east, we left the 

 mouth of the Bio Pao on the north, and that of the Arui on 

 the south. The latter river, which is somewhat consider- 

 able, is often mentioned by Raleigh. The current of the 

 Orinoco diminished in velocity as we advanced. I measured 

 several times a base along the beach, to ascertain the time 

 taken by floating bodies in traversing a known distance. 

 Above Alta Gracia, near the mouth of the Rio Ujape, 

 I had found the velocity of the Orinoco 2*3 feet in a 

 second; between Muitaco and Borbon it was only T7 

 foot. The barometric observations made in the neighbour- 

 ing steppes prove the small slope of the ground from the 

 longitude of 69 to the eastern coast of G-uiana. We found 

 in this country, on the right bank of the Orinoco, small 

 formations of primitive grunstein, superimposed on granite 

 (perhaps even embedded in the rock). We saw between 





