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944 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 
the Orinoco is traversed by numerous dikes of rock, 
forming natural dams, filled with islands of every 
form, some rocky and precipitous, while others re- 
semble shoals. By these the river is broken up 
into torrents, which are ever dashing their spray 
against the rocks. They are all furnished with 
sylvan vegetation, and resemble a mass of palm-trees 
rising amidst the foam of the waters. The current 
is divided into a multitude of rapids, each endea- 
vouring to force a passage through the narrows, and 
is every where engulfed in caverns, in one of which 
the travellers heard the water rolling at once over 
their heads and beneath their feet. 
Notwithstanding the formidable aspect of this 
long succession of falls, the Indians pass many of 
them in their canoes. When ascending they swim 
on before, and after repeated efforts succeed in fix- 
ing a rope to a point of rock, and thus draw the 
canoe up the rapid. Sometimes it fills with water, 
and is not unfrequently dashed to pieces against the 
shelves, upon which the sailors again swim, though 
not without difficulty, through the whirlpools to the 
nearest island. When the bars are very high the 
vessels are taken ashore, and drawn upon rollers, 
made of the branches of trees, to a place where the 
river again becomes navigable. During the flood, 
however, this operation is seldom necessary. 
Although the rapids of the Orinoco form a long 
series of falls, the noise of which is heard at the dis- 
tance of more than three miles, yet the rocks were 
found by Humboldt not to have a greater height 
than thirty feet perpendicular. He thinks it pro- 
bable that a considerable part of the water is lost by 
passing into subterranean cavities, independently of 
