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channels crossed each other. The pilot was 

 puzzled to distinguish the most open path. 

 We have mentioned above, that in the province of 

 Varinas you travel in a boat across open savan- 

 nahs from San Fernando de Apure as far as the 

 banks of the Arauca ; here we navigated through » 

 a forest so thick, that we could guide ourselves 

 neither by the sun nor by the stars. We were 

 again struck during this day by the want of ar- 

 borescent ferns in that country ; they diminish 

 visibly from six degrees of north latitude, while 

 the palm-trees augment prodigiously toward the 

 equator. Fern-trees belong to a climate less 

 hot, and a soil a little mountainous, to table- 

 lands three hundred toises high. It is only 

 where there are mountains, that these majestic 

 plants descend toward the plains ; they seem to 

 flee from perfectly flat grounds, as those through 

 which run the Cassiquiare, the Temi, Inirida, 

 and the Rio Negro. We passed in the night 

 near a rock, called the Piedra de Astor by the 

 missionaries. The ground from the mouth of 

 the Guaviare constantly displays the same 

 geological constitution. It is a vast granitic 

 plain, in which from league to league the rock 

 pierces the soil, and forms not hillocks, but 

 small masses, that resemble pillars or ruined 

 buildings. 



May the 1st. The Indians chose to depart 

 long before sunrise. We were stirring before 



