557 



because on this side the river is bounded by the 

 lofty mountains of Duida and Maraguaca, on 

 which the clouds are piled together, while the 

 left bank is low and contiguous to a plain, the 

 general slope of which inclines to the south-west. 

 The northern Cordilleras are covered with fine 

 timber. The growth of plants is such in this 

 ardent and constantly humid climate, that the 

 trunks of the bombax ceiba* are sixteen feet in 

 diameter. The Rio Padamo, or Patamo, by 

 which the missionaries of the Upper Oroonoko 

 communicated heretofore with those of the Rio 

 Caura, has become a source of error to geogra- 

 phers. Father Caul in gives it the name of Ma- 

 coma, and places another Rio Patamo between 

 the point of bifurcation of the Oroonoko and a 

 mountain called Ruida, which is no doubt iden- 

 tically the same with the Cerro Duida. Sur- 

 ville makes the Padarno communicate with the 

 Rio Ocamo (Ucamu), which is entirely inde- 

 pendant of it ; finally, a small tributary stream 

 of the Oroonoko, on the west of the bifurcation, 

 is indicated in the great map of La Cruz as the 

 Rio Padamo -f-, and the river that really bears 

 this name is called Rio Maquiritari. From the 



* The extraordinary dimensions attained by those species 

 of bombax, which are of very light wood, was known to Car- 

 dinal Bembo. Hist. Ven., 1551, fol. 03. 



+ The Patamo of La Cruz is changed, so as to make it 

 almost Greek, into Potamo, in Arrowsmith's map. 



