From the Bahama to the Cuyuni. 
207 
readied tlie first of the Barama rapids arising from several granite dams 
that had pushed their way across its bed. Although the AVaika settle- 
ment Cadui, which was reached on the same day, lay 12 miles below the 
great Dowocaima Fall, they nevertheless during the night distinctly 
heard the thundering rush of its waters. My brother having again hired 
some Indians to accompany him to the Cuyuni, they made their way to 
the Great Fall that had already notified itself in the far distance by 
several rapids. They landed at Wayaruima Island and were forced to 
carry baggage and boats more than two miles overland. The total drop 
of the Barama from Cadui to the bottom of Dowocaima amounted to 
120 feet. Shortly before the three uppermost falls the river becomes 
narrowed to 80 feet through the projecting masses of gneiss and then 
rushes down with frightful force in three drops, each of a perpendicular 
height of from 35 to 40 feet. The lay of the beds of gneiss runs S. 33° AV. 
Next day they passed Massiwindui Rapids as well as others of less im- 
portance, and pitched camp in the evening at the foot of Aunarna Falls 
where the path branched off to the Cuyuni. The river Aunarna joins the 
Barama immediately above the Falls: its mouth is in 7° 13' lat. N, 
The Barama is said to take its rise in the same paiallel of latitude as the 
Barima and Amacura, in fact, in the savannah extending to the north- 
ward from the Ekruyeku Range. 
007. On the 10th July they commenced their land journey afresh, 
traversed several hills of from 100 to 150 feet in height and then followed 
the valley through which the Aunarna comes flowing into the Barama. 
After a short rest in some of the Indians’ houses deserted by their 
occupants they resumed their way along the Aunarna and by evening- 
made the Carib village of the same name situate 7 9 lat. N. Upon and 
almost throughout the ridge of hills stretching from N, by AV. towards 
S. by E. which they had traversed during the day they found big rows 
of erratic granite boulders which in general ran NW. by AV. On the follow- 
ing morning they proceeded in the direction hitherto followed towards 
WSAV., crossed the Aunarna during the forenoon, and after traversing a 
small range of hills that extended S. by AV. hit the westerly arm of the 
Aunarna on the farther side of which runs the watershed between the 
Cuyuni and Barama, for, from this point onwards all the waters 
stream no longer eastward to the Barama and AVaini but southward to 
the Cuyuni and Essequibo. From this 520 ft. high range of hills the 
ground sloped gently down towards the Cuyuni. The hills stretching 
farther westward, between the valleys of the Aunarna and Acarabisi, 
hardly attained a height of 100 feet and as the length of the portage 
does not amount to quite two miles a cutting would form one of the 
most convenient means of communication between the Ponieroon and 
Morocco coast and the upper Cuyuni. By nightfall they arrived at a 
Carib settlement situate in 7° 4 lat. N. that lay about 540 feet above 
sea level. The pathway through the valley of the Acarabisi down which 
they climbed next morning was very irksome, for they found here an 
uninterrupted series of swamps and had to wade through these boggy 
areas under continuous showers of rain. On 13th July they made the 
Carib settlement Haiowa which was only but two miles distant from 
the waters of the Cuyuni. The same fertility that fringed the banks of 
