252 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



information as I was able to gather, rises on the north side 

 of the Pacaraima mountains, the easternmost part of which 

 only attains a height of 1500 French (in round numbers 

 1600 English) feet. The sources of the Mahu are on a 

 plateau, from whence it descends in a fine waterfall called 

 Corona. "We were about to visit this fall when on the third 

 day of our excursion to the mountains the sickness of one 

 of my companions obliged us to return to the station near 

 Lake Amucu. The Mahu has "black" or coffee-brown 

 water, and its current is more rapid than that of the Eupu- 

 nuri. In the mountains through which it makes its way it 

 is about 60 yards broad, and its environs are remarkably 

 picturesque. This valley, as well as the banks of the 

 Buroburo wlu'ch flows into the Siparuni, are inhabited by 

 the Macusis. In April the whole of the savannahs are over- 

 flowed, and present the peculiar phenomenon of the waters 

 belonging to different river basins being intermixed and 

 united. The enormous extent of this temporary inundation 

 may not improbably have given occasion to the story of the 

 Lake of Parime. During the rainy season there is formed 

 in the interior of the country a water communication between 

 the Essequibo, the Eio Branco, and Gran Para. Some 

 groups of trees, which rise like oases on the sand hills of the 

 savannahs, assume at the time of the inundation the character 

 of islands scattered over the extensive lake ; they are, no 

 doubt, the Ipomucena Islands of Don Antonio Santos." 



In D'Anville's manuscripts, which his heirs have kindly 

 permitted me to examine, I find that the surgeon Hortsmann, 

 of Hildesheim, who described these countries with great care, 



