CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 211 



Herrara tells us in the Decades) ( 5 ), to deem that he had 

 approached the garden of Eden, the sacred dwelling-place 

 of the first parents of the human race. The Orinoco 

 appeared to him to be one of the four rivers descending 

 from Paradise, to divide and water the earth newly decked 

 with vegetation. This poetic passage from the journal of 

 Columbus's voyage, or rather from a letter written from 

 Hayti, in October 1498, to Ferdinand and Isabella, has a 

 peculiar psychological interest. It teaches us anew that 

 the creative imagination of the poet exists in the Discoverer 

 as in every form of human greatness. 



In considering the quantity of water which the Orinoco 

 bears to the Atlantic, the question arises Which of the great 

 South American Rivers, the Orinoco, the Amazons, or the 

 River Plate, is the largest ? The question, however, thus 

 put is not a determinate one, the idea of size in this case 

 not being altogether definite. The Eiver Plate has the 

 widest embouchure, being 92 geographical miles across; 

 but, like the British rivers, its length is comparatively small. 

 Even at Buenos Ayres its depth is already so inconsiderable 

 as to impede navigation. The Amazons is the longest of 

 all rivers : its course from its origin in the Lake of Lauri- 

 cocha to its mouth is 2880 geographical miles. But its 

 breadth in the province of Jaen de Bracamoros, near the 

 cataract of Rentaina, as measured by me at the foot of the 

 picturesque mountain of Patachuma, hardly equals that of 

 the Rhine at Mayence. 



The Orinoco is narrower at its mouth than either the 

 River Plate or the Amazons ; and its length, according to 





