SLIGHT SLOPE OF THE RIVER.
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destitute o f animals capable o f furnishing i t * ; but h o w can w e avoid being astonished at, this indifference in t h e immense Chinese population, living in great part b e y o n d the tropics, and in the same latitude with the nomad and pastoral tribes o f central Asia ? I f t h e Chinese have ever been a pastoral people, how have they lost the tastes and habits so intimately c o n n e c t e d with that state, w h i c h precedes agricultural institutions ? T h e s e questions are interesting with respect both to the history o f the nations o f oriental A s i a , and t o the ancient c o m m u n i c a t i o n s that are supposed to have existed b e t w e e n that part o f the world and the north o f M e x i c o . W e w e n t d o w n the O r i n o c o in t w o days, from Carichana t o the mission o f Uruana, after having again passed the celebrated strait o f Baraguan. W e stopped several times t o determine the velocity o f the river, a n d its temperature at t h e surface, which was 2 7 ' 4 . T h e velocity was found to b e t w o feet in a second ( s i x t y - t w o toises in 3' 6 " ) , in places where the bed o f the O r i n o c o was m o r e than twelve t h o u sand feet b r o a d , and from t e n t o twelve fathoms d e e p . The slope o f the river is in fact extremely gentle from the Great Cataracts t o A n g o s t u r a ; and, if a barometric m e a s u r e m e n t were wanting, the difference o f height, might be determined b y approximation, by measuring from t i m e t o t i m e the velocity o f the stream, and the extent o f the section in breadth and depth. W e had some observations o f the stars at U r u a n a . I found t h e latitude o f t h e mission t o b e 7째 8 ' ; but the results from different stars left a d o u b t o f m o r e than 1'. T h e stratum o f m o s q u i t o s , which h o v e r e d over the g r o u n d , was so thick that I could not succeed in rectifying properly the artificial horizon. I t o r m e n t e d m y o
* The rein-deer are not domesticated in Greenland as they are in Lapland ; and the Esquimaux care little for their milk. The bisons taken very young, accustom themselves, on the west of the Alleghanics, to graze with herds of European cows. The females in some districts of India yield a little milk, but the natives have never thought of milking them. What is the origin of that fabulous story related by Gomara (chap. 43, p. 36). according to winch the first Spanish navigators saw, on the coast of South Carolina. " stags led to the savannahs by herdsmen ? " The female bisons, according to Mr. Buchanan and the philosophical historian of the Indian Archipelago, Mr. Crawford, yield more milk than common cows.