557 



because on this side the river is bounded by th^ 

 lofty mountains of Duida and Maraguaca, on 

 which the clouds are piled together, v/hile the 

 left bank is low and contiguous to a plain, the 

 general slope of which inclines to the south-west. 

 The northern Cordilleras are covered with fine 

 timber. The growth of plants is such in this 

 ardent and constantly humid climate, that the 

 trunks of the bombax ceiba* are sixteen feet in 

 diameter. The Rio Padamo, or Patamo, by 

 which the missionaries of the Upper Oroonoko 

 communicated heretofore with those of the Rio 

 Caura, has become a source of error to geogra- 

 phers. Father Caulin gives it the name of Ma- 

 coma, and places another Rio Patamo between 

 the point of bifurcation of the Oroonoko and a 

 mountain called Ruida, which is no doubt iden- 

 tically the same with the Cerro Duida. Sur- 

 ville makes the Padamo communicate with the 

 Rio Ocamo (Ucamu), which is entirely inde- 

 pendant of it ; finally, a small tributary stream 

 of the Oroonoko, on the west of the bifurcation, 

 is indicated in the great map of La Cruz as the 

 Rio Padamo *f~, and the river that really bears 

 this name is called Rio Maquiritari. From the 



* The extraordinary dimensions attained by those species 

 of bombax., which are of very light wood, was known to Car- 

 dinal Bembo. Hist. Ven., 1551, fol. 83. 



t The Patamo of La Cruz is changed, so as to make it 

 almost Greek, into Potamo, in Arrowsmith's map. 



