PASSING THE CATARACT OF ATURES. 183 



time necessary for passing the canoe through the Great 

 Cataract. The bottom of their frail bark had become so 

 thin that it required great care to prevent it from split- 

 ting. They took leave of the missionary, Bernardo Zea, 

 who remained at Atures, after having accompanied them 

 during two months, and shared all their sufferings. This 

 poor monk still continued to have fits of tertian ague ; 

 they had become to him an habitual evil, to which he 

 paid little attention. Other fevers of a more fatal kind 

 prevailed at Atures on their second visit. The greater 

 part of the Indians could not leave their hammocks, and 

 the travellers were obliged to send in search of cassava- 

 bread, the most indispensable food of the country, to the 

 independent but neighbouring tribe of the Piraoas. 



The travellers passed in their canoe through the lat- 

 ter half of the Cataract of Atures. They landed here 

 and there, to climb upon the rocks, which like narrow 

 dikes joined the islands one to another. Sometimes the 

 waters forced their way over the dikes, sometimes they 

 fell within them with a hollow noise. A considerable 

 portion of the Orinoco was dry, because the river had 

 found an issue by subterraneous caverns. In these soli- 

 tary haunts the rock-manakin with gilded plumage, one 

 of the most beautiful birds of the tropics, built its nest. 

 The little Cataract of Carucari was caused by an accu- 

 mulation of enormous blocks of granite, several of which 

 were spheroids of five or six feet in diameter, and they 

 were piled together in such a manner, as to form spacious 

 caverns. The travellers entered one of these caverns to 

 gather the confervse that were spread over the clefts and 

 humid sides of the rock. This spot displayed one of the 

 most extraordinary scenes of nature, that they had con- 



