UPON THE AKAUCA. 103 



CO and most of its tributaries below tbc Great Cataracts, 

 being especially abundant in the lagoons and marshes of 

 the Llanos, where prodigious numbers arc annually caught. 

 One mode of capturing it is by building stockades across 

 the outlets of fords and lakes, iip which the animals have 

 passed during the time of high water, and when the floods 

 subside they are easily taken. Another method is by har- 

 pooning them when they rise to the surface to breathe, 

 which they are frequently obliged to do. When exhausted 

 by its mad flight, dragging after it in wild speed the canoe 

 to which it is attached by a long cord, fastened to the 

 missile that has penetrated its body, it at length yields 

 itself a victim, and its body floats upon the water. It is 

 then dispatched by its pursuers, who, springing overboard, 

 immerse the canoe and slip it under the huge monster. 

 They then bale out the water, and, seating themselves 

 upon their captive, row" to land with their cargo. 



Before noon avc entered upon the broad, muddy cur- 

 rent of the Arauca. The banks were elevated and heavily 

 wooded; and groups of monkeys (araguatos and monos), 

 gambolled through the branches and upon the thick cordage 

 of lianas, that embraced the giant trunks, and interlaced 

 their boughs. Conspicuous amid this luxuriant growth of 

 vegetation was the saman, that species of mimosa whicli 

 attains to such magnificent proportions in the valley of 

 Aragua. Its umbrella-shaped crown of delicate, feathery 

 leaves, with each tree almost a forest in itself, presents 

 one of the striking features in the vegetation of the Llanos 

 of the Apure. The Bombax ceiba, or wild cotton-tree, 

 is also abundant here, and is one of the most useful, as it 

 is one of the most imposing, of the forest monarchs. The 

 immense size of its trunk, and the softness of its wood, 

 render it extremely valuable for large canoes. Our two 

 bongos were hollowed out from this tree, and would meas- 

 ure forty feet in length and over six between the sides, 



