42 



reach the easternmost chain, which bounds the 

 Pampas del Sacramento. From the hills of 

 Tayuchuc as far as Grand Para, during* a course 

 of more than 750 leagues, the navigation is free 

 from obstacles. It results from this rapid sketch, 

 that, if the Maragnon had not to pass over the 

 hilly country between San Yago and Tome- 

 penda, which belongs to the central chain of 

 the Andes, it would be navigable from it's mouth 

 as far as Pumpo, near Piscobamba, in the pro- 

 vince of Conchucos, 43 leagues north of it's 

 source. 



We have just seen, that in the Oroonoko, as 

 in the Amazon, it is not near the origin of the 

 rivers, that the great cataracts are found. After 

 a tranquil course of more than 160 leagues, 

 from the little Raudal of Guaharibos, east of 

 Esmeralda, as far as the mountains of Sipapu, 

 the river, augmented by the waters of the Jao, 

 the Ventuari, the Atabapo, and the Guaviare, 

 suddenly changes it's primitive situation from 

 east to west, and runs from south to north ; and, 

 in crossing the land strait* in the plains of Meta, 



dilleras furnish five knots of mountains, those of Porco, Cusco, 

 Pasco, Assuay, and los Pastos. The knots are formed by the 

 union of several chains, and the structure or frame of the An- 

 des is disclosed to us by an accurate knowledge of these 

 knots, as I shall demonstrate in a separate chapter. 



* This strait, which we have several times mentioned, is 

 formed by the Cordilleras of the Andes of New Grenada, and 

 the Cordillera of Parima. (See vol. iv, page 311 and 468.) 



