341 



Guainia, is so much the more remarkable from 

 it's being isolated in the plain that extends to 

 the south-west of the Oroonoko. It's situation 

 with regard to longitude might lead to the 

 belief, that it stretches into a ridge, which forms 

 first the strait (Angostura) of the Guaviare*, 

 and then the great cataracts (saltos, cachoeiras) 

 of the Uaupes and the Jupura. Does this 

 ground, composed probably of primitive rocks, 

 like that which I examined more to the east, 

 contain disseminated gold ? Are there stream- 

 works of gold more to the south, toward the 



Is the Canno de la Luna this branch ? or does it simply fur- 

 nish the facility of a portage ? We see that the communica- 

 tion of the Caqueta (Jupura) with the Upper Guainia, that is 

 with the Rio Negro, above Maroa, is extremely doubtful, 

 but another communication may be more reasonably admitted 

 in the low and marshy ground, that extends to the north 

 of the entrance of the Jupura into the Amazon. The small 

 rivers Anany (Unini, Univini) and Yaumuhi (Jau), two tribu- 

 tary streams of the Rio Negro, issuing out between the Villa 

 de Moura and Yau, communicate by the lake Atinineni 

 (Ativini) with the Cadaya, the eastern most branchof the Ju- 

 pura. (Corog. brazil., torn, ii, p. 285 and 348.) Mr. Southey 

 perhaps alludes to this branch in his History of Brazil, vol. i, 

 p. 591. The communication which Mr. Requena supposes 

 between the Puapua, a tributary of the Jupura, and two con- 

 fluents of the Rio Negro, the Xivara (Chivara, Teyn), and 

 the Unevixi (Uynuaxi), is only a portage. 



* Near this strait, (founding the itinerary distances on the 

 situation of San Fernando de Atabapo, in longitude 73* 45') 

 father Mancilla saw a chain of mountains, that skirted the ho- 

 rizon to the south. 



