CATARACTS OE THE ORINOCO. 219 



the boatmen is that of encountering the great natural rafts, 

 consisting of trees torn from the banks by the swelling of 

 the river, against which canoes are often wrecked during the 

 night. These rafts, covered like meadows with flowering 

 water plants, remind the spectator of the floating gardens of 

 the Mexican lakes. 



After this rapid review of the course of the Orinoco, and 

 of its general relations to the surrounding country, I pass 

 to the description of the Falls of Maypures and Atures. 



Between the sources of the rivers Sipapo and Ventuari a 

 granite ridge projects from the elevated mountain group of 

 Cunavami, and advances far to the west towards the moun- 

 tains of Uniama. Tour streams, which may be said to mark 

 the limits of the cataracts of Maypures, descend from this 

 ridge ; two, the Sipapo and the Sanariapo, on the eastern side 

 of the Orinoco ; and two, the Cameji and the Toparo, on its 

 western side. Near the Missionary village of Maypures the 

 mountains retire and form a wide bay open to the south-west. 



The foaming stream flows at the present time at the foot 

 of the eastern mountain declivity, and far to the west we 

 recognise the ancient bank now forsaken by the water. A 

 grass-covered plain, only about thirty feet above the present 

 highest level of the river, extends between the two chains of 

 hills. The Jesuits have built upon it a small church formed 

 of the trunks of palm trees. 



The geological aspect of the district, the shapes of the 

 rocks of Keri and Oco, which have so much the character 

 of islands, the water- worn hollows in the first named of these 

 rocks, situated at exactly the same height as the cavities in 

 the opposite island of Uivitari, all testify that the Orinoco 



