210 



CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



CHAP XVIII. 



liainy 



Dikes of 

 rock. 



Pftssatre of 

 tUe falls. 



Height of 

 thctdlU 



The rainy season had scarcely commenced, yet the 

 vegetation displayed all the vigour and brilliancy which, 

 on the coast, it assumes only towards the end of the 

 rains. The old trunks were decorated with orchides, 

 bannisterias, bignonias, arums, and other parasitic plants. 

 IMimosas, figs, and laurels, were the prevailing trees in 

 the woody spots ; and in the vicinity of the cataract 

 were groups of heliconias, bamboos, and palms. 



Along a space of more than five miles, the bed of the 

 Orinoco is traversed by numerous dikes of rock, forming 

 natural dams, filled with islands of every form, some 

 rocky and precipitous, while others resemble shoals. 

 By these the river is broken up into torrents, which are 

 ever dashing their spray against the rocks. They are 

 all furnished with sylvan vegetation, and resembled a 

 mass of palm-trees rising amidst the foam of the watere. 

 The current is divided into a multitude of rapids, each 

 endeavouring to force a passage through the narrows, 

 and is every where engulfed in caverns ; in one of which 

 the travellers heard the water rolling at once over their 

 heads and beneath their feet. 



Notwithstanding the formidable aspect of this long 

 succession of falls, the Indians pass many of them in 

 their canoes. When ascending they swim on before, 

 and after repeated efforts succeed in fixing a rope to a 

 point of rock, and thus draw the canoe up the rapid. 

 Sometimes it fills with water, and is not unfrequently 

 dashed to pieces against the shelves ; upon which the 

 Bailors again swim, though not without difficulty, 

 through the whirlpools to the nearest island. When the 

 bars are very high the vessels are taken ashore, and 

 drawn upon rollers, made of the branches of trees, to a 

 place wlicrc the river agaui becomes navigable. During 

 the flood, however, this operation is seldom necessary. 



Although tlie rapids of the Orinoco form a long series 

 of falls, the noise of which is heard at the distance of 

 more than three miles, yet the rocks were found by 

 Humboldt not to have a greater height than thirty feet 

 per])endicular. He thinks it probable that a consider- 



