562 



feet broad. Our canoe was sometimes jammed 

 between two blocks of granite. We sought to 

 avoid those passages, into which the waters 

 rushed with a horrible noise. There is no real 

 danger, when you are steered by a good Indian 

 pilot. When the current is too difficult to resist, 

 the rowers leap into the water, and fasten a rope 

 to the point of a rock, to warp the boat along. 

 This manoeuvre is very slow ; and we sometimes 

 availed ourselves of it, to climb the rocks among 

 which we were entangled. They are of all di- 

 mensions, rounded, very black, glossy like lead, 

 and destitute of vegetation. It is an extraordi- 

 nary sight, to see the waters of one of the 

 largest rivers on the Globe in some sort disap- 

 pear. We perceived even far from the shore 

 those immense blocks of granite, rising from the 

 ground, and leaning one against another. The 

 intervening channels in the Rapids are more 

 than twenty-five fathoms deep ; and are the 

 more difficult to be observed, as the rocks are 

 often narrow toward their bases, and form vaults 

 suspended over the surface of the river. We 

 perceived no crocodiles in the Raudal de Ca- 

 riven ; these animals seem to shun the noise of 

 cataracts. 



From Cabruta to the mouth of the Rio Sina- 

 ruco, a distance of nearly two degrees of lati- 

 tude, the left bank of the Oroonoko is entirely 

 uninhabited ; but to the West of the Raudal de 



