556 



double the mean rise of the Nile. But this mea- 

 sure was taken in a place, where the bed of the 

 Oroonoko is singularly hemmed in by rocks, and 

 I could only notice the marks shown me by the 

 natives. It may easily be conceived, that the 

 effect and the height of the increase differs ac- 

 cording to the profile of the river, the nature of 

 the banks more or less elevated, the number of 

 rivers flowing in, that collect the pluvial waters, 

 and the length of ground passed over. What is 

 indubitable, and has struck the imagination of 

 all who inhabit these countries, is, that at Cai i- 

 chana, at San Borja, at Atures, and at May- 

 pures, wherever the river has forced it's way 

 through the mountains, you see at a hundred, 

 sometimes at a hundred and thirty feet, above 

 the highest present increase of the river, black 

 bands and erosions, that indicate the ancient 

 abode of the waters. Is this river then, the 

 Oroonoko, which appears to us so grand and so 

 majestic, only the feeble remains of those im- 

 mense currents of fresh water, which swelled by 

 Alpine snows, or by more abundant rain?, every 

 where shaded by thick forests, and destitute of 

 those shores that favour evaporation, heretofore 

 traversed the country at the East of the Andes, 

 like arms of inland seas ? What must have been 

 the state of those low countries of Guyana, that 

 now undergo the effects of annual inundations? 

 What immense numbers of crocodiles, manatees* 



