ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 243 



districts have been given the names of the Curata nation." 

 (Reisen in Guiana und am Orinoco, S. 451.) 



( 9 ) p. 214. "Fabulous lake origin of the Orinoco," 



The lakes of these regions (some of which have had their 

 real size much exaggerated by theoretical geographers,, while 

 the existence of others is purely imaginary), may be divided 

 into two groups. The first of these groups comprises the 

 lakes, whether real or imaginary, placed between Esmeralda 

 (the easternmost mission on the upper Orinoco), and the Bio 

 Branco; and the second those assumed to exist in the 

 district between the Rio Branco and French, Dutch, and 

 British Guiana. This general view, of which travellers 

 should never lose sight, shews that the question of whether 

 there is yet a Lake Parime east of the Rio Branco, 

 other than the Lake Amucu, seen by Hortsmann, Santos, 

 Colonel Barata, and Schomburgk, has nothing whatever to 

 do with the problem of the sources of the Orinoco. As the 

 name of my friend the former Director of the Hydrographic 

 Office at Madrid, Don Felipe Bauza, is deservedly of great 

 weight in geography, the impartiality which ought to preside 

 over every scientific investigation makes me feel it a duty to 

 recall that this learned man was inclined to the view, that 

 there must be lakes west of the Rio Branco and not far 

 from the sources of the Orinoco. He wrote to me from 

 London, a short time before his death : " I wish you were 

 here, that I might converse with you on the subject of the 

 geography of the upper Orinoco, which has occupied you 



