108 GULF OF CARIACO. 
ceeded 10,000 quintals (9057 tbs. avoirdupois). The 
capsules, after the separation of the wool, were care- 
fully burnt, as they were thought to occasion noxious 
exhalations when thrown into the river. Cacao and 
sugar were also raised to a considerable extent. 
As our travellers were not sufficiently inured to 
the climate, they considered it prudent to leave 
Cariaco as expeditiously as possible on account of 
the fever. Embarking early in the morning, they 
proceeded westward along the river of Carenicuar, 
which flows through a deep marshy soil covered 
with gardens and plantations of cotton. The Indian 
women were washing their linen with the fruit of the 
parapara (Sapindus saponaria). Contrary winds, 
accompanied with heavy rain and thunder, render- 
ed the voyage disagreeable ; more especially as the 
canoe was narrow and overloaded with raw sugar, 
plantains, cocoa-nuts, and passengers. Swarms of 
flamingoes, egrets, and cormorants, were flying to- 
ward the shore, while the alcatras, a large species 
of pelican, less affected by the weather, continued 
fishing in the bay. The general depth of the sea is 
from 288 to 320 feet ; but at the eastern extremity 
of the gulf it is only from nineteen to twenty-five 
feet for an extent of seventeen miles, and there is 
a sandbank, which at low water resembles a small 
island. They crossed the part where the hot springs 
rush from the bottom of the ocean ; but it being high 
water the change of temperature was not very per- 
ceptible. The contrary winds continuing, they 
were forced to land at Pericautral, a small farm on 
the south side of the gulf. The coast, although co- 
vered by a beautiful vegetation, was almost desti- 
tute of human labour, and scarcely possessed seven 
