180 
THE CAPARBO MONKEY. 
abode. Tame pauxis * surrounded the Indian huts ; in one 
of which we saw a very rare monkey, which inhabits the 
banks of the Guaviare. This monkey is the caparro, which 
I have made known in my “ Observations on Zoology and 
comparative Anatomy it forms, as Geoflroy believes, a 
new genus (Lagothrix) between the ateles and the alouates. 
The hair of this monkey is grey, like that of the marten, 
and extremely soft to the touch. The caparro is distin- 
guished by a round head, and a mild and agreeable expres- 
sion of countenance. I believe the missionary Gili is the 
only author who has made mention before me of this 
curious animal, around which zoologists begin to group 
other monkeys of Brazil. Having quitted San Fernando on 
the 27th of May, we arrived, by help of the rapid current 
of the Orinoco, in seven hours, at the mouth of the Rio 
Mataveni. We passed the night in the open air, under the 
granitic rock El Castillito, which rises in the middle of the 
river, and the form of which reminded us of the ruin called 
the Mouse-tower (Mausethurm), on the Rhine, opposite 
Bingen. Here, as on the banks of the Atabapo, we were 
struck by the sight of a small species of drosera, having 
exactly the appearance of the drosera of Europe. 
The Orinoco had sensibly swelled during the night ; and 
the current, strongly accelerated, bore us, in ten hours, 
from the mouth of the Mataveni to the Upper Great 
Cataract, that of Maypures, or Quituna. The distance 
which we passed over was thirteen leagues. We recalled 
to mind, with much satisfaction, the scenes where we had 
reposed in going up the river. We again found the Indians 
who had accompanied us in our herborizations ; and we 
visited anew the fine spring that issues from a rock of 
stratified granite behind the house of the missionary: its 
temperature was not changed more than 0"3°. From the 
mouth of the Atabapo as far as that of the Apure we 
seemed to be travelling as through a country which we had 
long inhabited. We were reduced to the same abstinence; 
we were stung by the same mosquitos; but the certainty 
of reaching in a few weeks the term of our physical 
Bufferings kept up our spirits. 
* Not the ouraa r of Cuvier (Crax pauxi, Linn,), but the Crax alector 
