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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It Had Become Thinner, But Had
Received No Crack In The Portage.
We reckoned that it would still bear
the voyage of three hundred leagues, which we had yet to perform, in
going down the Rio Negro, ascending the Cassiquiare, and redescending
the Orinoco as far as Angostura.
The Pimichin, which is called a
rivulet (cano) is tolerably broad; but small trees that love the water
narrow the bed so much that there remains open a channel of only
fifteen or twenty toises. Next to the Rio Chagres this river is one of
the most celebrated in America for the number of its windings: it is
said to have eighty-five, which greatly lengthen it. They often form
right angles, and occur every two or three leagues. To determine the
difference of longitude between the landing-place and the point where
we were to enter the Rio Negro, I took by the compass the course of
the Cano Pimichin, and noted the time during which we followed the
same direction. The velocity of the current was only 2.4 feet in a
second; but our canoe made by rowing 4.6 feet. The embarcadero of the
Pimichin appeared to me to be eleven thousand toises west of its
mouth, and 0 degrees 2 minutes west of the mission of Javita. This
Cano is navigable during the whole year, and has but one raudal, which
is somewhat difficult to go up; its banks are low, but rocky. After
having followed the windings of the Pimichin for four hours and a half
we at length entered the Rio Negro.
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