1 2 Botanical Reminiscences. 
We left the Barima and entered the Eiver Ciiriiwara, a 
tributary of Barima, and, having ascended the river for several 
hours, we changed this river for that of the Manari, a tribu- 
tary of the Curuwara, with a very strong current, which we 
followed, and entered the territory of the Waika or Ackaway 
tribe. 
The banks of both rivers became perfectly flat, and all the 
profusion of vegetation disappeared. The stems of the trees 
along the banks were covered with mosses and JungermanniaSj 
and only the numerous luxuriantly growing orchids, as 
Stanhopea grancUflora, LindL, Bodriguezia secunda, Humb. and 
BonpL, and stricta, Steud., Oongora maculata, LindL, nigrita^ 
LindL, Maxillarias^ Fpidendrums, enlivened the surrounding 
monotonous picture. 
The water had overflowed the low banks, and our chieftain 
wishing to visit a Warrau settlement I accompanied him to 
the village in one of his boats, which took us right through 
the forest to the first hut. The settlement occupied a swamp 
surrounded by water, and the miserable huts were erected 
on platforms, which were built on piles, five to six feet high, 
for which purpose the close growing trees had been cut off 
about six feet above the ground to serve as pillars, across 
which the split stems of the palm, Euterpe oleracea, had been 
laid as a floor, and on this the roof of the huts had been 
built. A heap of earth in the middle of the hut served as 
the hearth, to prevent the constant burning fires from burning 
through the floor. The roofs of the huts were mostly thatched 
with palm leaves, and a notched stem of a tree leaning 
against the hut served as a ladder, to which at high water 
the canoes were fastened. Such habitations of the Warraus, 
who inhabit the often inundated vast region of the delta of the 
Orincoo, are not seldom met, and no doubt gave rise to the 
exaggerated stories of earlier travellers, that they had met 
Indian tribes who built their huts upon high trees. 
Even during the dry season the ground is so boggy that the 
inhabitants had been obliged to erect a dam to the higher ground. 
Large heaps of empty shells of the large snail, Ampulluria 
urceus, Fer., which I saw here for the first time, made me 
suppose that this snail was one of the delicacies of the 
inhabitants. 
Towards evening we reached the Waika or Akawai 
settlement Manari, which formed a pleasant contrast to the 
miserable hovels we had seen this afternoon. The huts not 
