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Show 172 CA'l.'ARACTS OF TIIE ORINOCO. peculiar psychological interest. It teaches us anew that the creative imagination of the poet exists in the Discoverer as in every form of human greatness. In considering the quantity of water which the Orinoco bears to the Atlantic, the question arises-Which of the great South American Rivers-the Orinoco, the Amazons, or the River Plate-is the largest? The question, however, thus put is not a determinate one, the idea of size, in this case, not being altogether definite. The River Plate has the widest embouchure, being 92 geographical miles across j but, like the British rivers, its length is comparatively small. Even at Buenos Ayres its depth is already so inconsiderable as to impede navigation. The Amazons is the longest of all rivers: its course from its origin in the Lake of Lauricocha to its mouth, is 2880 geographical miles. But its breadth, in the province of Jaen de Bracamoros, near the Cataract of Rentama, as measured by me at the foot of the picturesque mountain of Patachuma, hardly equals that of the Rhine at Mayence. The Orinoco is narrower at its mouth than either the River Plate or the Amazons j and its length, according to positions astronomically determined by me, only amounts to 1120 geographical miles. But, on the other hand, far in the interior of Guiana, 560 miles from its mouth, I still found its breadth, when full, 16,200 Parisian (17,265 Eng.) feet. The periodical swelling of the river annually raises its level, at this part of its course, from 30 to 36 feet above its lowest level. Sufficient materials for an accurate comparison of the enormous rivers which intersect the Continent of South America are still wanting. For such a comparison it would be needful to know in each case the profile of the river-bed, and the velocity of the water, which differs very greatly in different parts of the same stream. If, in the Delta enclosed by its variously divided and still unexplored arms-in the regularity of its periqdical rise and fall-and in the number and size of its crocodiles-the Orinoco shows points of resembl~nce to the Nile, there is this further analogy between the two rivers, that after long rushing rapidly through many windings between wood-fringed shores formed by granitic and syenitic rocks and mountains, during the remainder of their course they slowly roll their waters to the sea, between treeless banks, over an |