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boundary. We have already described the Cor- 

 dillera of the coast, of which the highest summit 

 is the Silla de Caraccas, and which is linked by 

 the Paramo de las Rosas to the Nevado de Me- 

 rida, and the Andes of New Grenada. We have 

 seen, that, in the tenth degree of North latitude, 

 it stretches from Quibor and Barquesimeto as 

 far as the point of Paria. A second chain of 

 mountains, or rather a less elevated but much 

 larger group, extends between the parallels of 

 3° and 7° from the mouths of the Guaviare and 

 the Meta to the sources of the Oroonoko, the 

 Marony, and the Esquibo, toward French and 

 Dutch Guyana. I call this chain the Cor- 

 dillera of Parime, or of the great cataracts 

 of the Oroonoko. It may be followed for a 

 length of two hundred and fifty leagues ; but it 

 is less a chain, than a collection of granitic moun- 

 tains, separated by small plains, without being- 

 every where disposed in lines. The group of 

 the mountains of Parime narrows consider- 

 ably between the sources of the Oroonoko and 

 the mountains of Demerary, in the Sierras of 

 Quimiropaca and Pacaraimo, which divide the 

 waters between the Carony and the Rio Parime, 

 or Rio de Aguas Blancas. This is the theatre 

 of the expeditions undertaken in search of El 

 Dorado, and the great city of Manoa, the Tom- 

 buetoo of the New Continent. The Cordillera 

 of Parime is not connected to the Andes of 



