234 



MOUNTAINS OF DUIDA. 



quiare, the jaguars carried off their great dog while 

 they slept. 



On the 21st May they again entered the channel 

 of the Orinoco, three leagues below the mission of 

 Esmeralda. Here the scenery wore a very impos- 

 ing aspect, lofty granitic mountains rising on the 

 northern bank. The celebrated bifurcation of the 

 river takes place in this manner : The stream, issu- 

 ing from among the mountains, reaches the opening 

 of a valley or depression of the ground which ter- 

 minates at the Rio Negro, and divides into two 

 branches. The principal branch continues its course 

 towards the west-north-west, turning round the group 

 of the mountains of Parime, while the other flows 

 off southward, and joins the Rio Negro. By this 

 latter branch our travellers ascended from the river 

 just mentioned, and again entered the Orinoco, four 

 weeks after they had left it near the mouth of the 

 Guaviare. They had still a voyage of 863 miles 

 to perform before reaching Angostura. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Route from Esmeralda to Angostura. 



Mission of Esmeralda— Curare Poison — Indians — Duida Mountain — 

 Descent of the Orinoco— Cave of Ataruipe— Raudalito of Carucari— 

 Mission of Uruana— Character of the Otomacs — Clay eaten by the Na- 

 tives—Arrival at Angostura— The Travellers attacked by Fever— Fe- 

 rocity of the Crocodiles. 



Opposite the point where the division of the river 

 takes place, there rises in the form of an amphi- 

 theatre a group of granitic mountains, of which the 

 principal one bears the name of Duida. It is about 

 8500 feet high; and being perpendicular on the 

 south and west, bare and stony on the summit, and 



