United States or Pakistan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
We have just examined the southern part of the vast system of the mountains of Parime, between 2 and 4 degrees of latitude, and between the meridians of the sources of the Orinoco and the Essequibo. The development of this system of mountains northward between the chain of Pacaraina and Rio Cuyuni, and between the meridians 66 and 61 3/4 degrees, is still less known.
Two portages but little frequented* are situated between the Rio Branco and the Rio Essequibo, south of the chain of Pacaraina; they shorten the land-road leading from the Villa del Rio Negro to Dutch Guiana.
This western branch of the mountains of Pacaraina separates the basin of Rio Branco from that of the Upper Orinoco, the sources of which are probably not found east of the meridian of 66 15 minutes: it is linked with the mountains of Unturan and Yumariquin, situated south-east of the mission of Esmeralda.
From this eastern branch of the chain of Pacaraina the Rio Rupunuri rises near the Cerro Uassari.
The Spanish traveller, Rodriguez, marks the eastern part of the chain by the name of Quimiropaca; but preferring to adopt general names, I continue to give the name of Pacaraina to the whole of this Cordillera which links the mountains of the Orinoco to the interior of Dutch and French Guiana, and which Raleigh and Keymis made known in Europe at the end of the 16th century.
If we may be allowed to judge of the structure of the whole Sierra Parime, from the part which I examined in 6 degrees of longitude, and 4 degrees of latitude, we may believe it to be entirely composed of gneiss-granite; I saw some beds of greenstone and amphibolic slate, but neither mica-slate, clay-slate, nor banks of green limestone, although many phenomena render the presence of mica-slate probable on the east of the Maypures and in the chain of Pacaraina.
Word Of The Day