451 



mouths of rivers. The small streamlets of water, 

 which wind along our meadows (the most perfect 

 of our plains) may convey a feeble image of 

 these interbranchings and bifurcations ; but dis- 

 daining to pause on objects so diminutive, we 

 are more struck with the contrast than the ana- 

 logy of the hydraulic systems of the two worlds. 

 The idea, that the Rhine might send out a 

 branch to the Danube, the Vistula to the Oder, 

 the Seine to the Loire, appears at first sight so 

 absurd, that, even when we no longer doubt of 

 the communication between the Oroonoko and 

 the Amazon, we still require, that the possibility 

 of what exists could be proved. 



In going up by the delta of the Oroonoko 

 toward Angostura and the confluence of the 

 Rio Apure, we leave the high chain of the 

 mountains of Parime constantly on our left. 

 This chain, far from forming (as several cele- 

 brated geographers have admitted) a barrier, 

 that separates the two basins of the Oroonoko 

 and the Amazon, furnishes on the contrary on 

 it's southern side, or back, the sources of the 

 former of these rivers. The Oroonoko (exactly 

 like the Arno in the celebrated voltata between 

 Bibicuo and Ponta Sieve) describes three quar- 

 ters of an oval, the greatest axis of which lies 

 in the direction of the latitude. It turns round 

 a group of mountains, which from it's two oppo- 

 site sides alike sends down to it waters. From 



2 g 2 



