31 
riCTITIOtlS LAKES AND SEAS. 
the Arui, and has taken the name of Parima. To follow this 
metamoi’phosis in its prop^ressive development, we must 
rampare the majjs which have appeared since the voya<?e of 
Italeigh till now. La Cruz, who has been copied by all the 
modern geographers, has preserved the oblong form of the 
lake Cassipa lor his lake Parima, although this form is 
entirely dillerent from that of the ancient lake Parima, or 
Kupmiuwim, of which the great axis was directed from east 
to west The ancient lake (that of Hondius, Sanson, and 
OoroueUi) was also suiTounded by mountains, and gave 
birch to no river ; while the lake Parima of La Cruz and the 
modern geographers communicates with the Upper Orinoco, 
as the Cassipa with the Lower Orinoco. 
T have stated the origin of the fable of the lake Cassiiia, 
^id the influence it has liad on the opinion that the lake 
P|uaina is tlie source of the Orinoco. Let us now examine 
what relates to this latter basin, this pretended ‘ interior 
sea, aimea Bupunumni by the geographers of the sixteenth 
century. In the latitude of four degi-ees or four degrees 
and a-half (ill wduch du-ection luifortuuately, south of Santo 
Thome del Angostura to the extent of eight degrees, no 
astroiionncal observation bas been made) is a long and 
narrow Cordillera that of Pacaraimo, Qdmiropaca, and 
Ucucuamo; winch, stretching from east to south-west, 
unites the group of mountains of Parima to the mountains 
of Dutch and Preneh Guiana. It divides its waters be- 
tween the Carony, the llupunury or Eupunwini, and the 
Eio Branco, and consequently between the valleys of the 
Lower Orinoco the Essequibo, and the Eio Negro. On the 
north-west of the Cordillera de Pacaraimo, which has becu 
teaversed but by a, small number of Europeans (by the 
German surgeon B icolas Hortsmaii, iu 1739 ; by a s/anisb 
'"i Santos, in 1775; by the Portuguese 
ISU -T English settlers, iu 
1811), descend the Noeapra, the Paraguamiisi, and the 
f^^aragna, winch fall into the Eio Carony ; on the Aortli-east! 
tlie Eupiiiiuwmi a tributary stream of the Eio Essequibo. 
Towaid the south, tee Tacutu and the Urariquera form 
toother the famous Eio Parima, or Eio Branco.^ 
branches of-the Eio Essequibo 
and the Eio Branco (that is, between the Eupunuwim on 
