254 



5-85°, from the great northern cataract, in a 

 difference of latituce of 2° 50'. The diminution 

 of the intensity of the magnetic force was not 

 less sensible. This, which at Atures amounted 

 to two hundred and twenty-three oscillations, 

 was expressed at Javita by only two hundred 

 and eighteen oscillations in 10' of time. 



The Indians of Javita, to the number of one 

 hundred and sixty, now belong for the most 

 part to the nations of the Poimisanoes, the Echi- 

 navis, and the Paraginis ; and are employed in 

 the construction of boats. These are formed of 

 the trunks of a large species of laurel, called 

 sassafras* by the missionaries, which are hol- 

 lowed by the joint means of fire and the hat- 

 chet. These trees are more than one hundred 

 feet high ; the wood is yellow, resinous, almost 

 incorruptible in the water, and has a very agree- 

 able smell. We saw them at San Fernando, at 

 Javita, and more particularly at Esmeralda, 

 where the greatest number of the canoes of 

 the Oroonoko are constructed, because the ad- 

 jacent forests furnish the largest trunks of sassa- 

 fras. The Indians are paid a piastre the half 

 toise, or vera, of the bottom of the boat (which is 

 the trunk hollowed) ; a boat therefore of sixteen 



* Ocotea cymbarum, very different from the laurus sassa- 

 fras of North America. (See our Nov. Gen. et Spec, 

 vol. ii, p. 166.) The laurus javitensis is also employed in 

 the construction of canoes. 



