The Rupununi at Last. 
267 
course of my journey are wliat Ray lias described as Lutra brasiliensis 
and Cuvier as Lutra enudris: it also remains just as doubtful whether the 
one described by Azara is identical with the L. brasiliensis. 
771. We met everybody in camp as busy as could be, for they had 
again found an innumerable quantity of turtle eggs and hooked a large 
number of tasty Phractocephalus bicolor Agass. to which we now added 
our rich supply of pigeons. One finds the Phractocephalus in almost all 
the Guiana rivers where it takes the hook baited with meat as greedily 
as the pirai; it also gives the same grunt when pulled out of 
the water. The Indians called it Pacaruima. To our great joy the 
condition of the patients was unexpectedly very much improved during 
the course of the day. 
772. After close upon a four weeks’ fight against the river and its 
rapids, we reached next morning, in 3° 59' 45" lat. N., the mouth of the 
Rupununi, one of the main tributaries of the Essequibo into which it 
streams from the S.W. The distance from the mouth of the main river 
up to that of its tributary, including bends, amounts to about 240 
geographical miles; the latter lies about 320 feet higher. As the 
Essequibo water has here a blackish but the Rupununi a dirty yellowish 
colour, one could follow the latter stream far into the Essequibo before 
both rivers, intimately merged into each other, rolled as one into the 
ocean. As in their waters so do both streams also differ in their banks 
and waterside vegetation. The banks of the Rupununi, on which the 
varying water level is to be seen clearly defined in the horizontal streaks 
of mud, consisted here of a yellowish clay mixed with sand ; they rose at 
the mouth to a height of about 10 feet and were occupied only by the 
water guava (Psidium aquaticum Month, and P. aromaticum Aubl.), 
associated with dense groups of the Sawari palm ( Astrocaryum Janari 
Mart.) at the back, which unmistakably betrayed the poverty of the 
soil. Although the mouth possessed a width of 200 yards, the bed never- 
theless in certain spots had barely a depth of 3 feet, a ratio that remained 
peculiar also farther up the river. It was curious that the temperature 
of the blackish waters of the Essequila* registered two degrees higher 
than that of the yellow Rupununi. 
773. Several corials that we found tied on the southern bank gave 
us the sure sign of the existence of an Indian settlement in the neigh- 
bourhood. We landed as quietly as possible and were really not noticed 
by the residents until we actually stood before them. The village 
consisted of four large houses built upon a spot cleared of all weeds and 
shaded by some calabash trees (Crescentia Cujute Linn.) covered with 1 
many parasites and small ferns, as well as by some large plantain trees 
between which grew here and there several cotton shrubs and bushes of 
Capsicum with red and yellow berries. The open houses, in which we 
saw various light frames which seemed to have been erected to protect 
their possessions from the damp, indicated at the same time that this 
must be a Carib settlement, which the first living person whom we saw 
confirmed. In one of the houses, the floor of which, made of split Euterpe 
trunks, was four feet above the ground, so that one had to climb up to it 
on a small ladder, there sat a big stout Carib painted red and white 
