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extremely gentle, often nearly imperceptible: 

 and therefore the least wind, or the swelling of 

 the Oroonoko, causes a reflux in those rivers 

 that flow into it. The Indians believe they de- 

 scend during a whole day in navigating from 

 their mouths toward their sources. The waters 

 that descend are separated from those that flow 

 back by a great body of stagnant water, in which, 

 the equilibrium being disturbed, whirlpools are 

 formed, that are dangerous for boats. 



The chief characteristic of the savannahs or 

 steppes of South America is the absolute want 

 of hills and inequalities, the perfect level of 

 every part of the soil. Accordingly the Spanish 

 conquerors, who first penetrated from Coro to 

 the banks of the Apure, did not call them de- 

 serts, or savannahs, or meadows, but plains, 

 Llanos. Often in a space of thirty square leagues 

 there is not an eminence of a foot high. This 

 resemblance to the surface of the sea strikes the 

 imagination most powerfully, where the plains 

 are altogether destitute of palm-trees; and where 

 the mountains of the shore and of the Oroonoko 

 are so distant, that they cannot be seen, as in 

 the Mesa de Pavones. A person would be 

 tempted there, to take the altitude of the Sun 

 with a quadrant, if the horizon of the land were 

 not constantly misty, on account of the variable 

 display of refraction. This equality of surface 

 is still more perfect in the meridian of Calabozo, 



