678 



horned cattle then seek the higher grounds, that 

 extend on the south toward the chain of the 

 mountains of Encaramada. This granitic chain 

 is intersected by vallies, which contain magnetic 

 sands (granulary oxidulated iron), owing no 

 doubt to the decomposition of some amphibolic 

 or chloritic strata. 



On the morning of the 9th of June we met a 

 great number of boats laden with merchandize, 

 sailing up the Oroonoko, in order to enter 

 the Apure. This is a commercial road much 

 frequented between Angostura and the port of 

 Torunos in the province of Varinas. Our fellow 

 traveller, Don Nicholas Soto, brother in law to 

 the governor of Varinas, took the same course, 

 to return to his family. At the period of the 

 high waters, several months are lost in striving 

 against the currents of the Oroonoko, the Apure, 

 and the Rio de Santo Domingo. The boatmen 

 are forced to carry out ropes to the trunks of 

 trees, and thus warp their canoes up. In the 

 great sinuosities of the river whole days are some- 

 times passed without advancing more than two 



beautiful apciba or aubletia tibrbu, plumeria mollis, allaman- 

 da cathartica, echites macrophylla, bignonia salicifolia, b. cari- 

 chanensis, b. verrucosa, sabicea hirsuta, piper anisdtum, and 

 rubia orinocensis. We were surprised to find this latter 

 plant, which belongs to the almost northern group of the 

 stellate, among the rubiaceae of the low regions of the tropics. 

 (Brown, on the Plants of the Congo, p. 28.) 



