458 NOTES OF A BOTANIST chap, xm 
A little above the mouth of the Tuparo is, 
perhaps, the highest fall of the rapids between the 
mainland and a small island, but it is impassable for 
canoes of any kind ; another channel along which 
they are conducted lies on the other side of the 
island. By the right (eastern) margin a number of 
large blocks are rudely piled up jutting into the fall 
on which one may creep out so as to have a splendid 
view of the cataract, the spray from which dashes 
in one's face, and whose roar drowns one's voice. 
They are clad with vegetation both arborescent 
and herbaceous, the latter principally Aroideae and 
Orchideae, among which is an orchid exceedingly 
like Peristeria Htimboldtii. Trunks of trees and 
moist overhanging rocks are clad with mosses, 
among which is the same Hypnum with compressed 
stems as is frequent on the Upper Rio Negro, and 
another species which I have not seen elsewhere. 
I looked in vain for Grimniia fontinaloides, Hook., 
both at the falls and all the way up to San 
Fernando. In some places circular holes are worn 
into the rock as on the cataracts of the Rio Negro. 
The remarkable ones visible near the summit of the 
island above the present flood surface of the river 
are called by the inhabitants ollas de xamuro (turkey 
buzzard's pans). 
I arrived at Maypures on the night of the 19th, 
and hoped at once to have proceeded with the kill- 
ing and salting of an ox, but the Contratista was 
away at Atures and did not return till the 24th, 
which, being the feast of San Juan, was a day 
devoted to feasting and pleasure, and no one was 
to be found to search after cattle. Early on 
the following morning two or three men were 
