EASTEKX GEOTJP Of PAEIJIE. 
811 
island in the Llanos of Gnaviare and Yupura. Father 
Pugnet, Principal of the Franciscan convent at Popayan, 
assured me, that when he went from the missions settled 
on the Eio Caguau to Aramo, a village situated on the Kio 
Guay^avero, he loiind only treeless savannahs, extending as 
fur as tlie eye could reach. The chain oi mountains placed 
by several modern geographers, between the Meta arid the 
Vichada, and which appears to link the Andes ot New 
Grenada with the Sierra Parirae, is altogether imaginary. 
We have now examined the prolongation of the Siei’ra 
Parime on the west, towards the source of the Rio Negro : 
it remains for us to follow the same group in its eastern 
direction. The mountains of the Upper Orinoco, eastward 
of the Kuudal of the Guahurihos (nor. hit. 1° 15' long. 07° 38'), 
join the cliain of Pacaraina, which divides the w'aters of the 
Ourony and the Rio Rranco, and ot which the micaceous 
schist, resplendent with silvery lustre, figures so conspi- 
cuously in Kaleigli’s El Dorado. Tho part of that chain 
containing the sources of the Orinoco has not yet been 
explored; but its jirolongatiou more to the east, between the 
meridian of the military post of Guirior and the Rupunuri, 
a tributary of the Essequibo, is known to me through 
the travels of the Spaniards Antonio Santos and Nicolas 
Rodriguez, and also by the geodesic labours of two Portu- 
guese, Pontes and Almeida. Two portages but little fre- 
quented* are situated between the Rio Branco and the Rio 
Essequibo, south of the chain of Pacaraina; they shorten the 
land-road leading from the Villa del Rio Negro to Eutch 
Guiana. On the contrary, the portage between the basin of 
the Rio Branco and that ot the Cai-oiiy, crosses the summit 
of the chain of Pacaraina. On the northern slope of this 
chain rises the Anocapra, a tributary of the Paraguamusi or 
Paravamusi ; and on the southern slope, the Araicuque, 
wdiich, with the TJraricapara, forms the fatnous Valley ot 
Inundations, above the destroyed mission ot Santa 
(lat. 3° 46', long. 65° 10'). The principal Cordillera, winch 
appears of little breadth, stretches on a length^ot 80 l^gues, 
from the portage of Anocapra, (long. 65° 35') to the lett 
bank ot the Rupunuri (long. 61° 50 '), tollowing the parallels 
* The portages of Sarauru and the lahe Araucu. 
