142 THE GREAT CATARACTS OF TtlE ORINOCO. 



bed of the cliannel are submerged by the floods that pour 

 their impetuous vohimes down this inclined plain, the as- 

 pect of the river must be grand in the extreme. The 

 mountains upon the west of the cataracts are rugged and 

 barren, and closely follow the river; while in the distance 

 the lofty peak of Uniana, three thousand feet in height, 

 rises like a huge column in the midst of the plain. East 

 of the Atures the hills are Avooded, and bound a plain a 

 league or more in breadth, strewed with great bowlders, 

 sometimes heaped in huge, irregular masses, with here and 

 there a verdant ravine and clump of trees that meet the 

 eye as it wanders over this wild and desolate tract. Upon 

 the isolated peak, from whose crest v/e take our view of 

 the rapids, are the remains of a dike, referred to in a previ- 

 ous chapter, which runs like a wall up the steep slope of 

 the sierra. The summit of the hill is also mounted by 

 huge bowlders of granite, twenty to thirty feet in diameter, 

 some of them so nicely poised and i-esting upon each other 

 tAVO and three in height, that it seems as though they 

 might easily be pushed down into the river-channel. 



In the afternoon we started with our natives for the 

 village of Atures, to procure a inactico to aid us in passing 

 the cataracts. A league over the rocky and burning plain 

 brought us to tlie river Cataniapo, which we were unable 

 to cross ; but our Indian guide, swimming the stream, suc- 

 ceeded in reaching the settlement, returning soon with the 

 promise of assistance on the morrow. Retracing our steps, 

 we observed fresh tracks of tigers, which are exceedingly 

 numerous in the wild districts about the Cataracts of the 

 Orinoco, That we were unarmed, with the prospect of 

 darkness overtaking us before we could reach camp, was 

 by no means a comforting reflection. In the morning, foot- 

 prints of tigers, within a few yards of where we had slept 

 in our hammocks under the trees, gave evidence of theif 

 visits daring the night, our tires having been suffered to 

 expire. 



