190 THE ORLNOCO. 



CHAPTER XVIL 

 Voyage up the Orinoco. 



Ascent of the Orinoco — Port of Encaramada — Traditions of a Uni- 

 versal Deluge — Gatherint^ of Turtles' Eg^s — Two Species de- 

 scribed — Mode of collectinff the Eg-gs and of manufacturing the 

 Oil — Probable Number of these Animals on the Orinoco — Deco- 

 rations of the Indians — Encampment of Pararuma — Height of 

 the Inundations of the Orinoco — Rapids of Tabage. 



c^APJC^^I. Leaving the Rio Apure the travellers entered the 

 Tiie Orinoco. Orinoco, and presently found themselves in a country 

 of an entirely different aspect. As far as the eye could 

 reach there lay hefore them a sheet of water, the waves 

 of which, from the conflict of the breeze and the current, 

 rose to the height of several feet. The long files of 

 herons, flamingoes, and spoonbills, which were observed 

 on the Apure, had disappeared ; and all that supplied 

 the place of those multitudes of animated beings by 

 whom they had been lately accompanied, was here and 

 there a crocodile swimming in the agitated stream. The 

 horizon was bounded by a girdle of forests, separated 

 from the river by a broad beach, the bare and parched 

 surface of which refracted the solar rays into the sem- 

 blance of pools, 

 Pnnta The wind was favourable for sailing up the Orinoco ; 



un'iujin ijy^ ^]^p siiQ^t broken waves at the junction of the two 

 rivers were exceedingly disagreeable. They passed the 

 Punta Curiquima, a granitic promontory, between which 

 and the mouth of the Apure the breadtli of the stream 

 was ascertained to bo 4063 yards, and in the rainy 

 season it extendB to 11,7U0. The temperature of the 

 water was ia the middle of the cuiTent 82-9% and near 



