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Show Ul\Il\IARY OF THE CONTENTS. 459 Phenomena which long-continueu drought produces in the Steppe· sand- pm1ts, hot winds (Mirage); awakening of crocodiles and tortoi es from long summer sleep . . . . 150-156 Otomacs. General considerations on the practice of earth-eating among particular nations or tribes. Clays and earths containing lnfu oria . 156-160 Figures graven on rocks throughout a zone running from east to west, and extending from the Rupunuri, Essequibo, and the Pacaraima Mountains, to Caycara and the wildernesses of the Cassiquiare. Earliest notice (April, 1749) of these traces of former civilization in the mann script account of the travels of the surgeon Nicolas Hortsmann of Hildesheim, found among D' Alwille's papers 160-164 The vegetable poison Curare or Ourari . 165 Cataracts of the Orinoco-p. 169 to p. 186. The Orinoco; general view of its course. Ideas excited in Columbus on seeing its embouchure. Its unknown sources are east of the Mountain of Duida and the groves of Bertholletia. Causes of the principal bends of the river . 169-177 The falls or rapids; Raudal of Maypures enclosed by four streams. Former state of the district. Island-like form of the rocks Keri and Oco. Grandeur of the view obtained on descending the hill of Manimi, where a foaming river-surface of four miles in extent presents itself at once to the eye. Iron-black masses of rock rise like castles from the bed of the river; the summits of the lofty palm trees pierce through the cloud of spray and vapor . 177-182 Ra1:1dal of Atures; numerous islands; rocky dikes connecting one island with another, and the resort of pugnacious golden Pipras. Parts of the bed of the river at the cataracts are dry, from the waters having found a passage by subterranean channels. We visited the rocks at the closing in of night and during storm and heavy rain. Unsusp~cted proximity of crocodiles 182-183 Celebrated cave of Ataruipe, the sepulchral vault of an extinct nation 183-186 Scientific Elucidations and Additions-p. 187 top. 202. The river-cow (Trichecus manati) lives in the sea at the place where, in the Gulf of Xagua, on the south coast of the Island of Cuba, springs of fresh water break forth . . . . . . . 187-188 Geographical discussion on the sources of the Orinoco . 189-193 The Bertholletia, a Lecythidea, a remarkable example of highly deve- |
