426 



The crocodiles of the Apure find abundant 

 nourishment in the chiguires * (the thick-nosed 

 tapir of naturalists), which live fifty or sixty 

 together in troops on the banks of the river. 

 These unfortunate animals, as large as our pigs, 

 have no weapons of defence ; they swim some- 

 what better than they run : yet they become the 

 prey of the crocodiles in the water, as of the 

 tigers on land. It is difficult to conceive, how, 

 persecuted by two powerful enemies, they can 

 become so numerous ; but they breed with the 

 same rapidity as the cobayas, or little guinea- 

 pigs, which come to us from Brazil. 



We stopped below the mouth of the Cano de 

 la Tigrera, in a sinuosity called la Vuelta del 

 Joval, to measure the velocity of the water at it's 

 surface. It was not more than 3*2 feet * in a 

 second ; which gives 2*56 feet for the mean 



* Cavia capybara, Lin. The word chiguire belongs to the 

 language of the Palenkas and the Cumanagotoes. (See chap, 

 ix, vol. iii, p. 283.) The Spaniards call this animal guarda- 

 tinaja ; the Caribbees, cayigua ; the Tamanacks, cappiva ; 

 the May pu res, chiato. According to Azzara, it is known 

 at Buenos Ayres by the Indian names of capiygua and capi- 

 guara. These various denominations display a striking 

 analogy between the languages of the Oroonoko, and those 

 of the Rio de la Plata. 



t In order to measure the velocity of the surface of rivers, 

 I generally measured on the beach a basis of 250 feet; and 

 observed with the chronometer the time, that a floating body 

 abandoned to the current required, to reach this distance. 



