340
VARIETIES OF WATER.
avoid embroiling farther a nomenclature o f rivers so arbitrarily fixed, I will not propose new denominations. I shall c o n t i n u e , with Father Caulin and the Spanish geographers, to call the river Esmeralda the Orinoco, or Upper Orinoco ; but I must observe that if the O r i n o c o , from San Fernando de Atabapo as far as the delta which it forms o p p o s i t e t h e island o f T r i n i d a d , w e r e regarded as the c o n t i n u a n c e o f the Rio G u a v i a r e ; and if that part o f the Upper O r i n o c o between the Esmeralda and the mission o f San Fernando were considered a tributary s t r e a m ; the O r i n o c o w o u l d preserve, from the savannahs o f San Juan de los Llanos and the eastern declivity o f the A n d e s to its mouth, a more uniform and natural direction, that from south-west t o north-east. The Rio Piragua, or that part of the O r i n o c o east o f the mouth of the Guaviare, has clearer, more transparent, and purer water than the part o f the O r i n o c o below San Fernando. The waters of the Guaviare, on the contrary, are white and t u r b i d ; they have the same taste, a c c o r d i n g to the Indians, (whose organs o f sense are extremely delicate and well practised.) as the waters o f the O r i n o c o near the Great Cataracts. " Bring me the waters o f three or four great rivers of these c o u n t r i e s , " an old Indian o f the mission o f Javita said t o u s ; " o n tasting each o f them I will tell y o u , without fear o f mistake, whence it was t a k e n ; whether it comes from a white or black river; the O r i n o c o or the Atabapo, the Paragua or the G u a v i a r e . " The great crocodiles and porpoises ( t o n i n a s ) which are alike c o m m o n in the Rio Guaviare and the L o w e r O r i n o c o , are entirely wanting, as we were told, in the Rio Paragua ( o r Upper O r i n o c o , between San Fernando and the Esmeralda). T h e s e are very remarkable differences in the nature o f the waters, and the distribution o f animals. T h e Indians do not fail to mention them, when they would prove to travellers that the U p p e r O r i n o c o , to the east, o f San Fernando, is a distinct river which falls into the O r i n o c o , and that the real origin o f the latter must be sought in the sources o f the Guaviare. Acesines. The Sutlej or Hysudrus forms, together with the Beyah or Hyphases, the river Gurra. These are the beautiful regions of the Punjab and Douab, celebrated from the time of Alexander to the present day.