216 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



whose banks are adorned with Carolinias and arborescent 

 Melastomas, and the Temi, Tuamini, and Guainia, are all 

 rivers of a coffee-brown colour. In the shade of the palm 

 groves this colour seems almost to pass into ink-black. 

 When placed in transparent vessels, the water appears of a 

 golden yellow. The image of the Southern Constellations 

 is reflected with wonderful clearness in these black streams. 

 Where their waters flow gently, they afford to the observer, 

 when taking astronomical observations with reflecting instru- 

 ments, a most excellent artificial horizon. A cooler atmo- 

 sphere, less torment from stinging mosquitoes, greater 

 salubrity, and the absence of crocodiles (fish, however, are 

 also wanting), mark the region of these black rivers. They 

 probably owe their peculiar colour to a solution of carbu- 

 retted hydrogen, to the luxuriance of the tropical vegetation, 

 and to the quantity of plants and herbs on the ground over 

 which they flow. On the western declivity of the Chimbo- 

 razo, towards the coast of the Pacific, I remarked that the 

 flooded waters of the Rio de Guayaquil gradually assumed a 

 golden yellow or almost coffee-brown colour, when covering 

 the meadows for some weeks. 



In the vicinity of the mouths of the Guaviare and Atabapo 

 grows the Piriguao, ( 10 ) one of the noblest of palm trees, 

 whose smooth and polished trunk, between 60 and 70 feet 

 high, is adorned with a delicate flag-like foliage curled at the 

 margins. I know no palm which bears such large and 

 beautifully coloured fruits. They resemble peaches, and are 

 tinged with yellow mingled with a roseate crimson. Seventy 

 or eighty of them form enormous pendulous bunches, of 



