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the Rio Cabullare, which is formed by the Pay- 

 ara and the Atamaica, and is sometimes consi- 

 dered as one of the branches of the Apure, be- 

 cause it communicates with this river by the 

 Rio Arichuna. The evening was beautiful. The 

 moon illumined the tops of the granitic rocks. 

 The heat was so uniformly distributed, that, 

 notwithstanding the humidity of the air, no 

 twinkling of the stars was remarked, even at 

 four or five degrees above the horizon. The 

 light of the planets was singularly dimmed ; 

 and if, on account of the smallness of the appa- 

 rent diameter of Jupiter, I did not suspect some 

 error in the observation, I should say, that here, 

 for the first time, we thought we distinguished 

 the disk of Jupiter with the naked eye. Toward 

 midnight, the North-East wind became ex- 

 tremely violent. It brought no clouds, but the 

 vault of the sky was covered more and more 

 with vapours. Strong gusts were felt, and made 

 us in fear for the safety of our canoe. During 

 this whole day we had seen very few crocodiles, 

 but all of an extraordinary size, from twenty to 

 twenty-four feet. The Indians assured us, that 

 the young crocodiles prefer the marshes, and 

 the rivers that are less broad, and less deep. 

 They crowd together particularly in the Canos, 

 and we might be tempted to say of them, what 

 Abd-Allatif says of the crocodiles of the Nile * 9 



* Descript. de YEgypte, translated by Mr. Silvestwi de Sacy. 



2h2 



