94 



SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



its course. At the confluence its discharge is estimated at 160,000 cubic feet per 

 second. 



Beyond the Meta follow, on the west side, the Capanaparo and the Arauca, one 

 above the other below the Barraguan gorges, where the Orinoco is still 1,900 

 yards wide. The Capanaparo rises at the base of the foothills, the Arauca on the 

 slopes of the Cordilleras themselves, but owing to their narrow basins both are 

 nearly destitute of affluents. Before reaching the Orinoco, the Arauca develops 

 an inland delta common to several other streams, amongst them the copious 

 Apure, which joins the Orinoco precisely at the point where this river, after turn- 

 ing the Guiana mountains, takes its definite trend eastwards to the Atlantic. 

 Thus it happens that the Apure, coming from the Andes, forms a western continua- 

 tion of the lower Orinoco. It is navigable for steamers as far as Palmarito, over 

 300 miles from the confluence, and its chief affluent, the Rio Portuguesa, is also 



Yis; 31. — Orinoco Basin. 

 Scale t : 6,000,000. 



300 Miles. 



accessible to steam-launches. Below the junction of its two main branches, the 

 TJribante and the Sarare, the placid current of the Apure is interrupted by no 

 reefs or rapids. Like the Arauca, it forms an extensive delta at its confluence 

 with the Orinoco, which is here 4,300 yards wide at low water, and 12,000 during 

 the floods. 



Below the confluence the yellow Apure and limpid Orinoco waters long flow in 

 separate currents before mingling in a single stream under the Cabruta hills. 

 Here the mainstream is so copious that it seems little affected even by such large 

 tributaries as the Cuchivero, the Caura, and the Caroni, which descend from the 

 Guiana mountains, and which will one day afford direct access to the Rio Branco 

 and the Amazons ; after the heavy rains the sources of an affluent of the Caroni 

 communicate across the low water-parting with the Cuyuni, which belongs to the 

 Essequibo basin. Some granite blocks, blackened by manganese dioxide, are 



