GEAND SCENEEY. I79 



Toward evening we descended a rapid inferior only to the 

 one at the village of San Gabriel, when, drawing up into 

 a little cove upon a sandy beach, we gladly rested from 

 the fatigues and dangers of the day. Early in the morn- 

 ing we passed the last rapid on the river, and our canoe 

 floated upon quietly-flowing waters. 



The entire length of these Great Cataracts of the Rio 

 Negro cannot be less than forty miles. Wallace, in his 

 interesting travels on the Rio Negro, thus speaks of them : 

 " The navigation of these falls is of a character quite dis- 

 tinct from any thing in our part of the world. A person, 

 looking at the river, sees only a rapid current, a few ed- 

 dies, and small breakers, in which there appears nothing 

 very formidable. When, however, you are in the midst 

 of them, you are quite bewildered with the conflicting 

 motions of the waters. Whirling and boiling eddies, 

 which birrst uj) from the bottom at intervals, as if fi'om 

 some subaqueous explosion, with short cross-waves, and 

 smooth intervening j^atches, almost make one giddy. On 

 one side of the canoe there is often a strong down-current ; 

 while on the other it flows in an opposite direction. Now 

 there is a cross stream at the bows, and a diagonal one at 

 the stern, with a foaming Scylla on one side and a whirl- 

 ing Charybdis on the other. All depends upon the pilot, 

 who, well acquainted with every sunken rock and danger- 

 ous whirlpool, steers clear of all perils ; now directing the 

 crew to pull hard, now to slacken, as circumstances re- 

 quire, and skilfully preparing the canoe to receive the im- 

 petus of the cross-currents that he sees ahead." 



In the afternoon we stopped at the small village of 

 Victoria, upon the west bank, and endeavored to replenish 

 our exhausted supplies ; but, failing, we went without food 

 for the day. Our Indians continued at the paddles until 

 nine in the evening, when they ceased, and the canoe was 

 allowed to drift with the current. This was our usual 



