



250 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



inundation which prevents me from accepting this explana- 

 tion. I have seen plains (the Llanos), where during the 

 rainy season the overflowing of the affluents of the Orinoco 

 annually cover with water a space of 400 German geographical 

 square miles (equal to 6400 English geographical square 

 miles) . At such times the labyrinth of branches between the 

 Apure, the Arauca, the Capanaparo, and the Sinaruco (see 

 Maps 17 and 18 of my Geographical and Physical Atlas), 

 can no longer be traced, for the separate courses are oblite- 

 rated, and all appears one vast lake. But the fable of the 

 Dorado of the Parime, and of the White Sea or Lake of the 

 Parime, belongs historically, as I endeavoured to shew in 

 another work thirty years ago, to an entirely different part of 

 Guiana, namely, to the country south of the Pacaraima 

 mountains ; and originated in the shining appearance of the 

 micaceous rocks of the Ucucuamo, the name of the Eio 

 Parime (Eio Branco), the overflowings of the tributaries of 

 that river, and especially the existence of the Lake of Amucu, 

 which is in the vicinity of the Eio Eupunuwini or Eupunuri, 

 and is connected through the Pirara with the Eio Parime. 



I have seen with pleasure that the travels of Sir Eobert 

 Schomburgk have fully confirmed these early views. The 

 part of his map which gives the course of the Esse- 

 quibo 'and the Eupunuri is entirely new and of great geo- 

 graphical importance. It places the Pacaraima chain in 

 3 52' to 4 North latitude (I had given it 4 to 4 10'), 

 and makes it reach the confluence of the Essequibo 

 and the Eupunuri, in 3 5?' N. lat. and 60 23' W. long, 

 from Paris (5'8 01' from Greenwich). I had placed this spot 



