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The river Atabapo displays every where a 

 peculiar aspect; you see nothing of it's real 

 banks formed by flat lands, eight or ten feet 

 high ; they are concealed by a row of palms, 

 and small trees with slender trunks, the roots 

 of which are bathed by the waters. There are 

 many crocodiles from the point where you quit 

 the Oroonoko to the mission of San Fernando, 

 and their presence indicates, as we have said 

 above, that this part of the river belongs to the 

 Rio Guaviare and not to the Atabapo. In the 

 real bed of the latter river, above the mission of 

 San Fernando, there are no longer any croco- 

 diles : we find there some bavas, a great many 

 fresh-water dolphins, but no manatees. We also 

 seek in vain on those banks the thick-nosed 

 tapir, the araguates, or great howling monkeys, 

 the zamuro, or vultur aura, and the crested 

 pheasant, known by the name of guacharaca. 

 Enormous water- snakes, in shape resembling the 

 boa, are unfortunately very common, and are 

 dangerous to the Indians who bathe. We saw 

 them almost from the first day, swimming by 

 the side of our canoe ; they were at the most 

 twelve or fourteen feet long. The jaguars of 

 the banks of the Atabapo and the Temi are 



very of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana. 

 Lond. 1596." (See also Raleghi admiranda Descriptio 

 Regni Guianae, Auri^abundantissimi. Ed. Hondius NorU 

 bergaj, 1599). 



VOL. V. Q 



