OEOGEAPHICAi, DOUBTS. 
339 
freflex verdure seems to have the same vivid hue as that 
which clothes the real vegetation. The surface of the fluid 
is homogeneous, smooth, and destitute of that mixture of 
suspended sand and decomposed organic matter, which 
toughens and streaks the surface of less limpid rivers. 
On quitting the Orinoco, several small rapids must be 
Passed, but without any appearance of danger. Amid these 
udalitos , according to the opinion of the missionaries, the 
-uio Atahapo falls into the Orinoco. I am however disposed 
to think that the Atahapo falls into the Guaviare. The Rio 
Ouaviare, which is much wider than the Atahapo, has white 
Raters, and in the aspect of its banks, its fishing-birds, its 
ush, and the great crocodiles which live in it, resembles the 
Orinoco much more than that part of the Atahapo which 
pomes from the Esmeralda. When a river springs from the 
Junction of two other rivers, nearly alike in size, it is difficult 
to judge which of the two confluent streams must be re- 
garded as its source. The Indians of San Fernando affirm 
that the Orinoco rises from two rivers, the Guaviare and 
, ' e , Rio Paragua. They give this latter name to the Upper 
Orinoco, from San Fernando and Santa Barbara to beyond 
he Esmeralda, and they say that the Cassiquiare is not an 
?. r ® of the Orinoco, but of the Rio Paragua. It matters hut 
Jttle whether or not the name of Orinoco he given to the 
7 1 ? Paragua, provided we trace the course of these rivers 
? s . *t is in nature, and do not separate by a chain of moun- 
ts, (as was done previously to my travels,) rivers that 
Communicate together, and form one system. When we 
j. 0LL id give the name of a large river to one of the two 
punches by which it is formed, it should he applied to that 
J'anch which furnishes most water. Now, at the two 
^aso ng of the year when I saw the Guaviare and the Upper 
p Pln oco or Rio Paragua (between the Esmeralda and San 
gQ er: ? a ud o ), it appeared to me that the latter was not 
e . 1:u 'ge as the Guaviare. Similar doubts have been 
p- e rfained by geographers respecting the junction of the 
,• PP® r Mississippi with the Missouri and the Ohio, the 
Val 10n ^ 1C Maranon with the Guallaga and the Uca- 
>jr°’ und the junction of the Indus with the Chunab 
^ydaspes of Cashmere) and the Gurra, or Sutlej.* To 
The Hydaspes is properly a tributary stream of the Chunab or 
* 2 
