5 



455 



feet above the mean height of the Apure, had 

 kept, at half after nine in the morning, at 

 335*6 lines, was, at eleven in the morning, 

 at the entrance of the Apure into the Oroo- 

 nokQ, 337*3 lines*. In estimating the total 

 length, including the sinuosities -f*, at ninety- 

 four miles, or eighty-nine thousand three hun- 

 dred toises, and attending to the little correc- 

 tion arising from the horary movement of the 

 barometer, we find a mean fall of thirteen 

 inches (exactly 1*15 foot) in a mile of nine 

 hundred and fifty toises. La Condamine and 

 the learned Major Rennel suppose, that the 

 mean fall of the Amazon and the Ganges does 

 not amount even to four or five inches in a 

 mile;};. 



We touched several times on shoals before we 

 entered the Oroonoko. The lands gained from 

 the water are immense toward the confluence 

 of the two rivers. We were obliged to be towed 

 along by the bank. What a contrast between 

 this state of the river, immediately before the 

 entrance of the rainy season, when all the effects 

 of the dryness of the air and of evaporation have 

 attained their maximum, and that autumnal 



* The temperature of the air in these two places being 

 31-2° and 32*4°. 



f I estimated them at aqnarter of the distance. 



X Tuckey, Exped. to the Congo, 1818 ; Introduction, 

 p. 17. 



