234 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



sure, and rise through the midst of the salt water. They 

 issue forth with such force that boats are cautious in 

 approaching this locality, which has an ill repute on 

 account of the high cross sea thus caused. Trading 

 vessels sailing along the coast and not disposed to land, 

 sometimes visit these springs to take in a supply of fresh 

 water, which is thus obtained in the open sea. The greater 

 the depth from which the water is taken, the fresher it is 

 found to be. The " river cow/' Trichecus manati, which 

 does not remain habitually in salt water, is often killed 

 here. This remarkable phenomenon of fresh springs 

 issuing from the sea has been most carefully examined 

 by a friend of mine, Don Francisco Lemaur, who made a 

 trigonometrical survey of the Bay of Xagua. I have been 

 farther to the South in the group of islands called the 

 Jardines del Eey, (the King's Gardens), making astronomical 

 observations for latitude and longitude ; but I have never 

 been at Xagua itself. 



( 3 ) p. 210. " The ancient site of a rocky bulwark." 



Columbus, whose unwearied spirit of observation exerted 

 itself in every direction, propounds in his letters to the Spa- 

 nish monarchs a geognostical hypothesis respecting the forms 

 of the larger Antilles. Having his mind deeply impressed 

 with the strength of the East and West Equinoctial current, 

 he ascribes to it the breaking up of the group of the smaller 

 West Indian islands, and the singularly lengthened configu- 

 ration of the southern coasts of Porto Rico, Haiti, Cuba, and 

 Jamaica, which all follow almost exactly the direction of 



