ANCIENT WATKR-J.EVEL. 
225 
J OtL of April ; this phenomenon surprised the natives so much 
more, as the first swellings are almost imperceptible, 
and are usually followed in the month of April by a fall for 
some days. The Orinoco was already three feet higher than 
the level of the lowest waters. The natives showed us on a 
granite w all the traces of the great rise of the waters of late 
fears. We found them to be forty-two feet high, which is 
Rouble the mean rise of the Nile.' But this measure was 
I en 111 a place where the bed of the Orinoco is singularly 
nemmed in by rocks, and I could only notice the marks 
“ ] °wn me by the natives. It may easily be conceived that 
>e effect and the height of the increase differs according to 
prolile of the river, the nature of the banks more or less 
evated, the number of rivers flowing in that collect the 
I "vial waters, and the length of ground passed over. It is 
\ 1 unquestionable fact that at Cariehana, at San Borja, at 
- tures, and at Maypures, wherever the river has forced its 
tim throu S b the mounta ' n s, you see at a hundred, some- 
mes at a hundred and thirty feet, above the highest 
1 esent swell of the river, black bauds and erosions, that 
'vff °u te t,le ancient levels o1 ’ the waters. Is then this river, 
feel l a PP ears to us 80 grand and so majestic, only the 
'vl 1 i relna ' n . s those immense currents of fresh water 
\ "i 1 heretofore traversed the country at the east of the 
t l na es , like arms of inland seas ? What must have been 
tl, 6 state °f those low countries of Guiana that now undergo 
fJ t - e etl ects of annual inundations ? What immense numbers 
'a C 1 roco(iiles > manatis, and boas must have inhabited these 
s , ; riL s P aces of land, converted alternately into marshes of 
nior ant ' Tater > aEd into barren and fissured plains 1 The 
to ® Peaceful world which we inhabit has then succeeded 
4iw World of tumult. The bones of mastodons and 
of t , Ica p elepnants are found dispersed on the table-lands 
LT- U „ e -'udes. The megatherium inhabited the plains of 
v aUey UU ‘ V 'j 0n digging deep into the ground, in high 
8>'o\v '," ' ere lle 'ther palm-trees nor arborescent ferns can 
of ’ 8 rata °1 coal are discovered, that still show vestiges 
Tli monoc otyledonous plants. 
Plant' tle " aS a lenu, t° period then, in which the classes of 
airge,, " t \ lu otherwise distributed, when the animals were 
V 0 ’ and the rivers broader and of .greater depth. There 
