spar, cemented by indurated clay. It exhibits 

 little veins of brown iron ore, which separate in 

 laminae, or plates, of one line in thickness. We 

 had already found these plates on the shores 

 between Encaramada and Baraguan, where the 

 missionaries had sometimes taken them for an 

 ore of gold, and sometimes for tin. It is pro- 

 bable, that this secondary formation occupied 

 formerly a larger space. Having passed the 

 mouth of the Rio Parueni, beyond which the 

 Maco Indians dwell, we spent the night on the 

 island of Panumana. I could with difficulty 

 take the altitudes of Canopus, in order to fix the 

 longitude* of the point, near which the river 

 suddenly turns toward the W est. The island of 

 Panumana is rich in plants. We there again 

 found those shelves of bare rock, those tufts of 

 melastomas, those thickets of small shrubs, the 

 blended scenery of which had charmed us in 

 the plains of Carichana. The mountains of the 

 Great Cataracts bounded the horizon toward the 

 South-East. In proportion as we advanced, we 

 perceived that the shores of the Oroonoko exhi- 

 bited a more imposing and picturesque aspect. 



* Long. 70* 8' 39 /; ; admitting, according to the itinerary 

 distances, the latitude of the island to be 5° 41 



END OP VOL. IV 7 



