518 
VELOCITY OE THE CUBBEST. 
be surmounted than those of the Danube between Vienna 
and Linz. We meet with no great bars, no real cataracts, 
until we get above the Meta. The Doper Orinoco there- 
fore, with the Cassiquiixre and the Eio Negro, forms a parti- 
cular system of rivers, where the active industry of Angos- 
tura and the shore of Caracas will remain long unknown. 
I obtained horary angles of the sun in an island in the 
midst of the Boca del Infierno, where we had set up our 
instruments. The longitude of this point according to the 
chronometer is 67° 10' 31*. 1 attempted to determine the 
magnetic dip and intensity, but was prevented by a heavy 
storm of rain. As the sky again became serene in the after- 
noon, we lay down to rest that night on a vast beach, on the 
southern bank of the Orinoco, nearly in the meridian of the 
little town of Muitaco, or Deal Corona. I found the latitude 
by three stars to be 8° 0' 26", and the longitude 67° 5' 19". 
When the Observantin monks in 1752 made their first 
entradas on the territory of the Caribs, they constructed on 
this spot a small fort. The proximity of the lofty moun- 
tains of Araguacais renders Muitaco one of the most healthy 
places on the Lower Orinoco. There Iturriaga took up his 
abode in 1756, to repose after the fatigues of the expedition 
of the boundaries ; and as he attributed his recovery to this 
hot rather than humid climate, the town, or more properly 
the village, of Real Corona took the name of Pueblo del Puerto 
sano. Going down the Orinoco more to the east, we left the 
mouth of the Rio Pao on the north, and that of the Arui on 
the south. The Latter river, which is somewhat consider- 
able, is often mentioned by Raleigh. The current of the 
Orinoco diminished in velocity as we advanced. I measured 
several times a base along the beach, to ascertain the time 
taken by floating bodies in traversing a known distance. 
Above Alta Gracia, near the mouth of the Rio Ujape, 
I had found the velocity of the Orinoco 2 3 feet in a 
second; between Muitaco and Borbon it was only 17 
foot. The barometric observations made in the neighbour- 
ing steppes prove the small slope of the ground from the 
longitude of 69° to the eastern coast of Guiana. We found 
in this country, on the right bank of the Orinoco, small 
formations of primitive griinstein, superimposed on granite 
(perhaps even embedded in the rock). We saw between 
