136 UP THE ORINOCO. 



the stream and along its borders, which are submerged 

 during the annual swelling of the river, we often saw what 

 might be termed the progressive formation of these gra- 

 nitic bowlders. The upper stratum, several feet in thick- 

 ness, of a flat rock, would be separated into huge frag- 

 ments by decomposition. Frequently the blocks would 

 be ai-ranged in a row, longitudinally with the stream, with 

 the upper one, fi-om being most exposed to the action of 

 the curi-ent, worn into a perfect bowlder ; the next in order 

 exhibiting not so much the eflects of the erosive element ; 

 the third still less ; and so on diminishing until, before the 

 last was reached, no change was perceptible, the rock 

 being simply divided into sections. Should all but the 

 first be removed, it would scarcely be conceived that the 

 isolated bowlder was hewn from the rock upon which it 

 stands, but rather that it had been deposited there by 



some external force. 



We p,scended the Randal de Carihen by towing ; the 

 current making with violence through the narrow channels 

 found by the rocks that filled the bed of the stream. A 

 mile or more to the west of the river, across a treeless and 

 sunburnt plain, is the little village which bears the name 

 of the rapids. At 5 p. m. we were in front of the mouth 

 of the Rio Meta, next to the Guaviare, the lai-gest tribu- 

 tary of the Orinoco. Canoes and lanchas ascend this 

 stream, penetrating as far as the base of the Andes, and 

 by an overland journey of about twenty leagues the trav- 

 eller reaches Bogota, the capital of Colombia. Its banks 

 are infested with the Guahibos, a warlike race of savages, 

 who are a constant source of terror to the voyager on 

 those waters. They also inhabit the west bank of the 

 Orinoco as far as the Great Cataracts. Unlike most of 

 the Indian tribes of the Orinoco, who are peaceably in- 

 clined, and follow the tillage of the soil, cultivating the 

 banana, yuca, and sugar-cane, the Guahibos lead a no- 



