196 
COHCEPCIOK DE UltBANA. 
quent in those regions, and display at that period the 
^ C)rf thoT following day, the 7th, we passed on our right, the 
mouth of the great Kio Auraca, celebrated for the immea 
number of birds that frequent it; and, on our left, 
Mission of Uruana, commonly called La Concepcion de ur 
bam. This small village, which contains five hundred souls, 
was founded by the Jesuits, about the year 1748, by tn 
union of the Ottomac and Cavere Indians. It lies at i' 
foot of a mountain composed of detached blocks ol gram t 
which I believe, bears the name of Saraguaca. Masses 
rock, separated one from the other by the effect of decoj 
position, form caverns, in which we find indubitable P r0 , - c 
of the ancient civilization of the natives. Hieroglyph 
figures, and even characters in regular lines, are seen semi 
tured on their sides; though I doubt whether they W* 
any analogy to alphabetic writing. We visited the Missm 
of TJruana'on our return from the Eio Negro, and saw wi 
our own eyes those heaps of earth which the Ottomacs 
and which have become the subject of such lively discuss^ 
m ^measuring the breadth of the Orinoco between W 
islands called Isla de Hruana and Isla de la Manteca, 
found it, during the high waters, 2674 toises, which m j, 
nearly four nautical miles. This is eight times the brea» 
of the Nile at Manfalout and Syout, yet we were at 
distance of a hundred and ninety-four leagues from 
mouth of the Orinoco. _ „ q° of 
The temperature of the water at its surface was 
the centigrade thermometer, near Uruana. That ol ^ 
river Zaire, or Congo, in Africa, at an equal distance » 
the equator, was found by Captain Tuckey, in the m<m 
ofJuly and August, to be only from 23-9° to 25-6°. , et 
The western bank of the Orinoco remains low m rv ^ 
* This earth is a greasy kind of clay, which, in seasons of scarcity b , 
natives use to assuage the cravings of hunger ; it having been P r0 * fo oJ 
their experience, as well as by physiological researches, that want® 1 
can be more easily borne by filling the cavity of the stomach with 
substance, even although it may be in itself very nearly or t°taUy * 
tritious. The Indian hunters of North America, for the same P®^ 
tie boards tightly across the abdomen ; and most savage races are 
to have recourse to expedients that answer the same end. 
