336 
OBIGTir OE THE EAEIME BANG*. 
The system of the mountains of Parime separates th« 
plains of the Lower Orinoco from those of the liio Negro 
and the Ainazoti ; it occupies a territory of trapezoidal form, 
comprehended between the parallels o'f 3= and 8°, and the 
meridians of 61° and 70^“. I here indicate only the elements 
of the loftiest group, for we shall soon see that towards 
south-east, the mountainous country, in lowering, draws near 
the equator, as well as to French and Portuguese G-uiana. 
The Sierra Parime extends most in the direction N. 85° W., 
and the partial chains into which it sepai’ates on the west- 
ward generally foUow the same direction. It is less a Cor- 
dillera or a continuous chain in the sense given to those 
denominalions when applied to the Andes and Caucasus, 
than an irregular grouping of mountains separated the one 
from the other by plains and savannahs. I visited the 
northe^, western, and southern parts of the Sierra Parime, 
which is remarkable by its position and its extent of more 
than 25,000 square leagues. From the confluence of the 
Apure, as far as the delta of the Orinoco, it is uuilbrndy 
three or four leagues removed from the right bank of the 
great river; only some rocks of gneiss-granite, amphibolic 
slate, and greenstone advance as far as the bed of the 
Orinoco, and create the rapids of Torno and of La Boca del 
Infierno.* I shallname successively, from N.N.E. to S.S.W., 
the difl’erent chains seen by M. Bonpland and myself as we 
approached the equator and the river Amazon. 1st. The 
most northern chain of the whole system of the mountains 
of Parime, appeared to us to bo that which stretches (lat. 
7° 50') from the Itio Ami, in the meridian of the rapids of 
Camiseta, at the back of the town of Angostura, towards 
the groat cataracts of the Bio Carony and the sources of 
the Imataca. In the missions of the Catalonian Capuchins, 
this chain, which is not 300 toises high, separates the tri- 
butary streams of the Oruioco and those of the Bio Cuyuni, 
between the town of TJpata, Cupapui, and Santa Marta. 
Westward of the meridian of the rapids of Camiseta (long. 
* To this series of advanced rocks also belong those which pierce the 
soil between the Rio Aquire and the Rio Barinia ; the granitic and amphi- 
bolic rocks of the Vieja Guayana and of the town of Angostura ; the 
Cerro de Mono on the south-east of Muitaco or Real Corouo ; the Cerro 
of Taramuto near the Alta Gracia, &c. 
