332 



and length of the upper course*. The rivers in 

 America often acquire an extraordinary in- 

 crease-)- in the volume of their waters, during a 

 course of no considerable length. 



What particularly characterises the Guainia 

 in it's upper course is the want of sinuosities ; it 

 is like a large canal traced in a direct line 

 through a thick forest. Whenever the river 

 changes it's direction, it presents openings to the 

 eye of equal length. The banks are high, but 

 even 5 and seldom rocky. The granite, traversed 

 by immense veins of white quartz, appears in 

 general only in the middle of the bed. In going 

 up the Guainia to the north-west, the current 

 augments in rapidity every day of the naviga- 

 tion. The banks of the river are desert ; it is 

 only toward the sources {las cavezeras), that the 

 hilly country is inhabited by the Manivas and 

 Poignaves. The sources of the Inirida (Iniri- 

 cha), I was told by the Indians, are but two or 



* The Seine and the Marne, for instance, furnish more 

 than 2 9 of distance (on a calculation of their direct course), 

 from Paris to their sources. 



t The length of the course of the Rio Ventuari and the 

 Rio Caura is only 1° 20' and 1° 50 7 , I do not mention the 

 immense river Guayaquil, and others that rise on the west- 

 ern declivity of the Andes, because they form (like the 

 Thames and the Severn) vast gulfs at the mouth, a species of 

 jakes, the fresh waters of which, in their oscillating move- 

 ments, are repelled or stopped by the tides of the Ocean. 



