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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In these forests, which
are less inhabited by animals than those of the Orinoco, we no longer
heard the howlings of the monkeys.
The dolphins, or toninas, sported
by the side of our boat. According to the relation of Mr. Colebrooke,
the Delphinus gangeticus, which is the fresh-water porpoise of the Old
World, in like manner accompanies the boats that go up towards
Benares; but from Benares to the point where the Ganges receives the
salt waters is only two hundred leagues, while from the Atabapo to the
mouth of the Orinoco is more than three hundred and twenty.
About noon we passed the mouth of the little river Ipurichapano on the
east, and afterwards the granitic rock, known by the name of Piedra
del Tigre. Between the fourth and fifth degrees of latitude, a little
to the south of the mountains of Sipapo, we reach the southern
extremity of that chain of cataracts, which I proposed, in a memoir
published in 1800, to call the Chain of Parima. At 4 degrees 20
minutes it stretches from the right bank of the Orinoco toward the
east and east-south-east. The whole of the land extending from the
mountains of the Parima towards the river Amazon, which is traversed
by the Atabapo, the Cassiquiare, and the Rio Negro, is an immense
plain, covered partly with forests, and partly with grass. Small rocks
rise here and there like castles. We regretted that we had not stopped
to rest near the Piedra del Tigre; for on going up the Atabapo we had
great difficulty to find a spot of dry ground, open and spacious
enough to light a fire, and place our instrument and our hammocks.
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