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We followed, as we continued our progress 

 throug h the cavern, the banks of the small river, 

 which issued from it, and is from twenty-eight 

 to thirty feet wide. We walked on the banks, 

 as far as the hills formed of calcareous incrust- 

 ations permitted us. When the torrent winds 

 among very high masses of stalactites, we were 

 often obliged to descend into it's bed, which is 

 only two feet in depth. We learnt, with sur- 

 prise, that this subterraneous rivulet is the ori- 

 gin of the river Caripe, which, at a few leagues 

 distance, after having joined the small river of 

 Santa Maria, is navigable for canoes. It enters 

 into the river Areo under the name of Canno de 

 Terezen. We found on the banks of the sub- 

 terraneous rivulet a great quantity of palm-tree 

 wood, the remains of trunks, on which the In- 

 dians climb to reach the nests hanging to the 

 roofs of the cavern. The rings, formed by the 

 vestiges of the old footstalks of the leaves, fur- 

 nish as it were the footsteps of a ladder perpen- 

 dicularly placed. 



The Grotto of Caripe preserves the same di- 

 rection, the same breadth, and it's primitive 

 height of sixty or seventy feet, to the distance of 

 472 metres, or 1458 feet, accurately measured. 

 I have never seen a cavern, in either continent, 

 of so uniform and regular a construction. We 

 had great difficulty in persuading the Indians 

 to pass beyond the outer part of the grotto, the 



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