314 
RAF DAL DE CAJIEJI. 
the ‘ Lucanian oxen,’ as they called the elephants of th* 
army of Pyrrhus. 
We embarked at Puerto de Arriba, and passed the 
Eaudal de Cameji with some difficulty. This passage 
reputed to be dangerous when the water is very high ; but 
we found the surface of the river beyond the raudal a® 
smooth as glass. We passed the night in a rocky island 
called Piedra Eaton, which is three-quarters of a league 
long, and displays that singular aspect of rising vegetation, 
those clusters of shrubs, scattered over a bare and rocky 
soil, of which we have often spoken. 
On the 22nd of April we departed an hour and a half 
before sunrise. The morning was humid but delicious ; not 
a breath of wind was felt ; for south of Atures and May' 
pures a perpetual calm prevails. On the banks of the Bin 
Negro and the Cassiquiare, at the foot of Cerro Duida, and 
at the mission of Santa Barbara, we never heard that rust- 
ling of the leaves which has such a peculiar charm in very hot 
climates. The windings of rivers, the shelter of mountains, 
the thickness of the forests, aud the almost continual rains, 
at one or two degrees of latitude north of the equator, con- 
tribute no doubt to this phenomenon, which is peculiar to 
the missions of the Orinoco. 
In that part of the valley of the Amazon which is south 
of the equator, but at the same distance from it, as the places 
just mentioned, a strong wind always rises two hours after 
mid-day. This wind blows constantly against the stream, 
and is felt only in the bed of the river. Below San Boija h 
is an easterly wind ; at Tomependa I found it between north 
and north-north-east ; it is still the same breeze, the wind 
of the rotation of the globe, but modified by slight local cir- 
cumstances. By favour of this general breeze you may go ll P 
the Amazon under sail, from Grand Para as far as Tefe, a 
distance of seven hundred and fifty leagues. In the province 
of Jaen de Bracamoros, at the foot of the western declivity 
of the Cordilleras, this Atlantic breeze rises sometimes to a 
tempest. 
It is highly probable that the great salubrity of tb® 
Amazon is owing to this constant breeze. In the stagnau 
air of the Upper Orinoco the chemical affinities act roo re 
powerfully, and more deleterious miasmata are formed' 
