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Show 19R CATARACTS OF TIIE ORINOCO. west, ihen to the north for one degree of latitude, afterwards almost 200 English miles to the east, and finally north and NNE. to its junction with the Essequibo." As Mr. Hillhouse was unable to reach the souihern declivity of the Pacaraima chain, he was not acquainted with the Amucu Lake : he says himself, in his printed account, that "from the information he had gained from the Ac. caouais, who constantly traverse all the country between the shore and the Amazons River, he had become satisfied that there is no lake at all in these districts!' This statement occasioned me some surprise, as it was in direct contradiction to the views which I had formed respecting the Lake of Amucu, from which the Cafio Pirara flows according to the narratives of Hortsmann, Santos, and Rodriguez, whose accounts inspired me with the more confidence because they agree entirely with the recent Portuguese manuscript maps. Finally, after five years of expectation, Sir Robert Schomburgk's journey has dispelled all doubts. " It is difficult to believe," said Mr Hillhouse, in his interesting memoir on the Massaruni, " that the report of a great inland water is entirely without foundation. It seems to me possible that the following circumstances may have given occasion to the belief in the existence of the fabulous Lake of the Parime. At some distance from the fallen rocks of Teboco, the waters of the Massaruni appear to the eye as motionless as the tranquil surface of a lake. If at a more or less remote epoch the horizontal stratum of granite at Teboco had been perfectly compact and unbroken, the waters must have stood at least fifty feet above their present level, and there would thus have been formed an immense lake, ten or twelve English miles broad and 1500 to 2000 English miles long" (Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, 1836, Sept., p. 316). It is not solely the vast extent of this supposed inundation which prevents me from accepting this explanation. I have seen plains (the Llanos), where, during the rainy season, the overflowing of the affiuents of the Orinoco annually cover with water a space of 400 German geographical square miles (equal to 6400 English geographical square miles). At such times the labyrinth of branches between the Apure, the Arauca, the Capanaparo, and the Sinaruco (see Maps 17 and 18 of my Geographical and Physical Atlas), can no longer be traced, for the separate courses |