338 
CHAIK OF SIPAPO. 
Siamacu, and the mountains (lat. 5° 50 ) that separate the 
sources of the Erevato and the Caura from those of the 
Ventuari. 5th. The chain of Carichana and of Paruaci 
(lat. 6° 25'), wild in aspect, but surrounded by charming 
meadows. Piles of granite crowned with trees, and insu- 
lated rocks of prismatic form (the Mogote of Cocuyza aiul 
the Marimanita or Castdlito of the Jesuits), belong to this 
chain. 6th. On the western bank of the Orinoco, which is 
low and Hat, the Peak of XJniana rises abruptly more than 
8000 feet high. The spurs (lat. 5° 35' — .5° 40’) which this 
peak sends eastward are crossed by the Orinoco in the first 
Great Cataract (that of Mapm-a or the Atures) ; further on 
they unite together, and, rising^ in a chain, stretch towards 
the sources of the Cataniapo, the rapids of Ventuari, situated 
on the north of the confluence of the Asisi (lat. 5° 10') and 
the Cerro Cuncvo. 7th. Eive leagues south of the Atures 
is the chain of Quittuna, or of Maypures (lat. 15° 13'), 
which forms the bar of the Second Great Cataract. None 
of those lofty summits are situated on the west of the 
Orinoco ; on the ea.st of that river rises the Cunavami, the 
truncated peak of Calitamini, and the Jiiiainaii, to which 
Father Gili attributes an extraordinary height. 8th. The 
last chain of the south-west part of the Sierra Parime is 
separated by woody plains from the chain of Maypures ; it 
is the chain of the Cerros de Sipapo (lat. 4° 50')'; an enor- 
mous wall, behind which the powerful chief of the Guav- 
punabi Indians intrenched himself during the expedition of 
Solano. The chain of Sipapo may be considered as tlie 
beginning of the range of lofty mountains which bound, at 
the distance of some leagues, the right baidi of the Grinoco, 
where that river runs from S.E. to N.W., between the 
mouth of the Ventuari, the Jao, and tlie Padamo (lat. 
3° 15'). In ascending the Orinoco, above the cataract of 
Maypures, W'e find, long before we reach the point where it 
turns, near San Fernando del Atabapo, the mountains dis- 
appearing from the bed of the river, and from the mouth of 
the Zama there are only insulated rocks in the plains. The 
chain of Sipapo forms the south-west limit of the system of 
mountains of Parime, between 70j° and GS° of longitude. 
Modem geologists have obsen^ed that the culminant points 
of a group are less frequently found at its centre than 
