510 



that pierce the soil, and fix from afar the atten- 

 tion of the traveller. These granitic, and often 

 stratified masses, resemble pillars or edifices in 

 ruins. The same force which heaved up the 

 whole groupe of the Sierra Parime, has acted 

 here and there in the plains as far as beyond 

 the equator. The existence of these steeps and 

 sporadic monticula, renders difficult the precise 

 fixation of the limits of a system in which the 

 mountains are not longitudinally ranged as in 

 a vein. In proportion as we advance towards 

 the frontier of the Portugueze province of Rio 

 Negro the high rocks become more rare, and 

 we no longer find the shelves or dykes of gneis- 

 granite which cause rapids and cataracts in 

 the rivers. 



Such is the surface of the soil between the 

 684° and 70i° of longitude, between the meri- 

 dian of the bifurcation of the Oroonoko, and 

 that of San Fernando de Atabapo ; further on, 

 westward of the Upper Rio Negro, towards the 

 source of that river, and its tributary streams 

 the Xie and the Uaupes (lat. 1°— 21°, long. 72° 

 — 74°) lies a small mountainous table-land, in 

 which Indian traditions place a Laguna de oro, 

 that is a lake surrounded with beds of aurife- 



Piedra de Culimacari (lat. 2° 0' 42") on the banks of the 

 Cassiquiare } Clorieta de Cocuy (lat. 1° 40 7 ) and Piedra de 

 Uinumane on the banks of the Rio Negro. {See Vol. v, 

 p. 233, 242, 371, 372, 399, 400, 409, 412.) 



