Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Town Of Cuenca In The Kingdom Of Quito, Is Surrounded By
Three Small Rivers, The Machangara, The Rio Del Matadero, And The
Yanuncai; Of Which The Two Former Are White, And The Waters Of The
Last Are Black (Aguas Negras).
These waters, like those of the
Atabapo, are of a coffee-colour by reflection, and pale yellow by
transmission.
They are very clear, and the inhabitants of Cuenca, who
drink them in preference to any other, attribute their colour to the
sarsaparilla, which it is said grows abundantly on the banks of the
Rio Yanuncai.
We left the mouth of the Zama at five in the morning of the 23rd of
April. The river continued to be skirted on both sides by a thick
forest. The mountains on the east seemed gradually to retire farther
back. We passed first the mouth of the Rio Mataveni, and afterward an
islet of a very singular form; a square granitic rock that rises in
the middle of the water. It is called by the missionaries El
Castillito, or the Little Castle. Black bands seem to indicate, that
the highest swellings of the Orinoco do not rise at this place above
eight feet; and that the great swellings observed lower down are owing
to the tributary streams which flow into it north of the raudales of
Atures and Maypures. We passed the night on the right bank opposite
the mouth of the Rio Siucurivapu, near a rock called Aricagua. During
the night an innumerable quantity of bats issued from the clefts of
the rock, and hovered around our hammocks.
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