59 



at the period of high waters. A solitary cata- 

 ract, like Niagara or the cascade of Terni, 

 affords an admirable but single picture, that 

 varies only as the observer changes his place. 

 The rapids, on the contrary, above all when they 

 are adorned with large trees, embellish a land- 

 scape during a length of several leagues. Some- 

 times the tumultuous movement of the waters is 

 caused only by extraordinary contractions of the 

 beds of the rivers. Such is the Angostura of 

 Carare, in the river Magdalen, a strait that im- 

 pedes the communication between Santa Fe de 

 Bogota and the coast of Carthagena : such is 

 the pongo of Manferiche, in the Upper Marag- 

 non, which Mr. de la Condamine thought much 

 more dangerous than it really is, and which the 

 pastor of San Borja is obliged to go up, every 

 time that he exercises his ministry in the village 

 of San Yago. 



The Oroonoko, the Rio Negro, and almost all 

 the confluents of the Amazon and the Maragnon, 

 have falls or rapids, either because they cross the 

 mountains where they take rise, or because they 

 find other mountains in the middle of their 

 course. If, as we have above observed, the 

 Amazon, from the pongo of Manseriche (or, to 

 speak with more precision, from the Pongo of 

 Tayuchuc,) as far as it's mouth, a space of more 

 than seven hundred and fifty leagues, furnish 

 no tiunultuous movement of the waters, this 



