332 



and length of the upper course*. The rivers in 

 America often acquire an extraordinary in- 

 crease^ in the volume of their waters, during a 

 course of no considerable length. 



What particularly characterises the Guainia 

 in it's upper course is the want of sinuosities; it 

 is like a large canal traced in a direct line 

 through a thick forest. Whenever the river 

 changes it's direction, it presents openings to the 

 eye of equal length. The banks are high, but 

 even, and seldom rocky. The granite, traversed 

 by immense veins of white quartz, appears in 

 general only in the middle of the bed. In going 

 up the Guainia to the north-west, the current 

 augments in rapidity every day of the naviga- 

 tion. The banks of the river are desert ; it is 

 only toward the sources (las cavezer as), that the 

 hilly country is inhabited by the Manivas and 

 Poignaves. The sources of the Inirida (Iniri- 

 cha), I was told by the Indians, are but two or 



* The Seine and the Marne, for instance, furnish more 

 than 2° of distance (on a calculation of their direct course), 

 from Paris to their sources. 1 



f The length of the course of the Rio Ventuari and the 

 Rio Oaura is only 1° 20' and 1° 50'. I do not mention the 

 immense river Guayaquil, and others that rise on the west- 

 ern declivity of the Andes, because they form (like the 

 Thames and the Severn) vast gulfs at the mouth, a species of 

 lakes, the fresh waters of which, in their oscillating move- 

 ments, are repelled or stopped by the tides of the Ocean. 



