GEOGRAPHICAL DOUBTS.
339
reflex verdure seems to have the same vivid hue as that which clothes t h e real vegetation. T h e surface o f the fluid is h o m o g e n e o u s , s m o o t h , and destitute o f that m i x t u r e o f suspended sand and d e c o m p o s e d organic matter, which roughens and streaks the surface of less limpid rivers. O n quitting the O r i n o c o , several small rapids must he passed, but w i t h o u t any appearance o f danger. A m i d these raudalitos, according to the opinion o f the missionaries, the Rio A t a b a p o falls into the O r i n o c o . I am however disposed t o think that the A t a b a p o falls into the Guaviare. T h e Rio Guaviare, which is m u c h wider than the A t a b a p o , has white waters, and in t h e aspect o f its banks, its fishing-birds, its fish, and the great crocodiles which live in it, resembles the O r i n o c o m u c h m o r e than that part o f the A t a b a p o which c o m e s from the Esmeralda, W h e n a river springs from the j u n c t i o n o f t w o other rivers, nearly alike in size, it is difficult t o j u d g e which o f the t w o confluent streams must be r e garded as its s o u r c e . T h e Indians o f San F e r n a n d o affirm that the O r i n o c o rises from t w o rivers, the Guaviare and the K i o Paragua. They give this latter name to t h e U p p e r O r i n o c o , from San F e r n a n d o and Santa Barbara to b e y o n d t h e Esmeralda, and they say that the Cassiquiare is n o t an arm o f the O r i n o c o , b u t o f the Rio Paragua. It matters b u t little whether o r n o t the name o f O r i n o c o b e given t o the K i o Paragua, provided w e trace t h e course o f these rivers as it is in nature, and d o n o t separate by a chain o f m o u n tains, (as was d o n e previously t o m y travels,) rivers that c o m m u n i c a t e t o g e t h e r , and form one system. W h e n we would give the name o f a large river t o o n e o f t h e t w o branches by which if is formed, if should be applied t o that branch which furnishes m o s t water. N o w , at the t w o seasons o f the year when I saw the Guaviare and the U p p e r O r i n o c o or Rio Paragua ( b e t w e e n the Esmeralda and San F e r n a n d o ) , it appeared to me that the latter was n o t so large as the Guaviare. Similar d o u b t s have been entertained by geographers respecting the j u n c t i o n o f t h e U p p e r Mississippi with the Missouri and the O h i o , t h e j u n c t i o n of the Mara単on with the Guallaga and the U c a yale, and the j u n c t i o n o f the I n d u s with the C h u n a b ( H y d a s p e s o f C a s h m e r e ) and the Gurra, o r S u t l e j . * To * The Hydaspes is properly a tributary stream of the Chunab or z 2