408 
SIXGULAKLY-FOKJIED HOCKS. 
light east wind in the upper regions of the air. W e recog- 
nized in these signs an approaching change of the weather; 
and were unwilling to go far from the mouth of the Cassi- 
quiare, iu the hope of observing during the following night 
the passage of some star over the meridian. We descried 
the Cano°Daquiapo to the south, the Guachaparu to the 
north, and a few miles further, the rapids of Cananivacari. 
The velocity of the current being 6' 3 feet iu a second, we 
had to struggle against the turbulent waves ot the Itaudal. 
We went on shore, and M. Bonpland discovered within a 
few steps of the beach a majestic almendron, or Bertholletia 
excelsa. The Indians assured us, that the existence of this 
valuable plant of the banks of the Cassiquiare was unknown 
at San Francisco Solano, V'nsiva, and Esmeralda. They did 
not think that the tree we saw, which was more than sixty 
feet high, had been sown by some passing traveller. Expe- 
riments made at San Carlos have shown how rare it is to 
succeed in causing the bertholletia to germinate, on account 
of its ligneous pericarp, and the oil contained in its nut, 
which so readily becomes rancid. Perhaps this tree denoted 
the existence o'f a forest of bertholletia in the inland country 
on the east and north-east. Wo know', at least, with cet- 
tainty, that this fine tree grows wild in the third degree ot 
latitude, in the Cerro do Guanaya. The plants that live in 
society have sbldorn marked limits, and it happens, tha 
before we reach a palmar or a pinar* we find solitary palm- 
trees and pines. They are somewhat like colonists that 
have advanced in the midst of a country peopled with diffe- 
rent vegetable productions. 
Four miles distant from the rapids of Cunanivacan, rocks 
of the strangest form rise in the plains. First appears a 
narrow wall eighty feet high, and perpendicular ; and at the 
southern extremity of this w all are two turrets, the courses 
of which arc of granite, and nearly horizontal. The grouping 
of the rocks of Guanari is so symmetrical that they might 
be taken for the ruins of an ancient edifice. Are they the 
remains of islets in the midst of an inland sea, that covered 
the flat ground between the Sierra Parime and the Parecis 
* Two Spanish words, which, according to a Latin form, denote » 
forest of palm-trees (palmetum) and of pines (pinetum). 
