3i8 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



work. This is most scanty. In the 1887 volume there is a 

 very short abstract of his earlier explorations, with a portion 

 of his journey up the Orinoko in that year. In the volume 

 for 1900 is an article by the Count, almost entirely devoted to 

 a description, with drawings, of all the rock inscriptions which 

 he found in the Uaupes. These drawings are very carefully 

 made, and are twelve in number, each representing a whole 

 rock surface, often containing several groups of forty or fifty 

 distinct figures. It is rather curious that several of the groups 

 in my two plates do not appear in any of the twelve plates 

 of Count Stradelli. Besides these drawings there are several 

 large scale sketch-plans of the portions of the river where they 

 were found, mostly at cataracts or rapids where there are 

 large exposed rock surfaces. The map showing the first three 

 cataracts well illustrates the description of them given at 

 p. 197 of my Travels." But besides these sketch-plans 

 there is a large folding map of the Uaupes, drawn by Count 

 Stradelli from " compass " bearings during this last journey. 

 There is no reference whatever to this map by the Count 

 himself, except the statement on the title that it is by 

 compass " observations, as was mine. And as there is no 

 reference to any determinations of longitude the distances 

 could only have been ascertained by estimated rates of canoe- 

 travel, such as I used myself. I therefore compared the two 

 maps with much interest, and found some discrepancies of 

 considerable amount. His map is on a scale rather more 

 than four times that of mine ; but my original map, now in 

 the possession of the Geographical Society, is on a larger scale 

 than his. His longitude of the river's mouth is 67° 5', mine 

 being 68°, more accurate determinations having now been 

 made than were available at the time I prepared my map, 

 more than fifty years ago. On comparing the two maps we 

 see at once a very close agreement in the various curves, sharp 

 bends, loops, and other irregularities of the river's course, so 

 that, omitting the minuter details, the two correspond very 

 satisfactorily. But when we compare the total length of the 

 river to my furthest point, close to the mouth of the Codiary, 

 there is a large difierence. The difference of the longitudes 



