38 



and blocks of granite piled on one another and 

 covered with palm-trees, among which one of 

 the greatest rivers of the New World chafes in 

 foam. But notwithstanding a uniformity of 

 aspect, each of these cataracts preserves an indi- 

 vidual character. The first, or northernmost, is 

 most easily passable when the waters are low. 

 The Indians prefer crossing the second, the 

 Maypures, at the time of great floods. Beyond 

 the Maypures and the mouth of the Canno 

 Cameji, the Oroonoko is again free from ob- 

 stacles for the length of more than 167 leagues* 

 or nearly to it's source ; that is to say, as far as 

 the Raudalito of Guaharibos, east of Canno 

 Chiguire and the lofty mountains of Yumari- 

 quin. 



Having visited the basins of the two rivers 

 Oroonoko and Amazon, I was singularly struck 

 by the differences they display in their course of 

 unequal extent. The falls of the Amazon, which 

 is nearly 980 nautical leagues* (20 to a degree) 



* Reckoning the sinuosities, as for the Oroonoko, at one 

 third of the course of the river in a straight line, according to 

 the custom of hydrographers, M. de la Condarnine gives the 

 Amazon 1100, and the Ucayale 500 leagues in length. ( Voyage 

 a /' Equateur, p. 189.) 1 find for the Ucayale, on rectifying 

 the longitude of the sources of the Apurimac, 360 leagues. 

 All the statements given in geographical works respecting 

 relative lengths of the course of rivers are extremely inaccu- 

 rate, because the estimations of old maps are repeated, and 

 because the sinuosities (the space which a boat carried along 



