The Sun.
London, England, 1821-09-17 00:00:00

FOREIGN LITERXTURE.

(No. XL)

VOYAGE aus REGIONS EQUINOXIALES dot NOU-
VEAU CONTINENT : i. e: Travels in the Equinoctial
Regions of the New Continent, performed in and from 1793
to 1804, by M. DE HUMBOLDT and A. DE BONPLAND;
with two Atlases, one containing Viiws of the Cordilleras
and. Monuments of the Indigerions Inhabitant's of America,
and the other containing GOgrlphiC!al and Physical Maps
and Plans. Vol. IV. Bvo. Paris.. IBM.

• [Contin7d from Saturday's Paper.]
A navigation ,on the Rio-Apure had accus-
tomed ourtwo learned travellers to the wild har-
mony of the desert; a calm and serene night EP-
not enablo them to sleep, but in recOmpence they
were present at the strange concert formed by
the flute-like souruls of the marmoset, the pierc-
ing cries of the tiger, the- conguar, the maneless
lion, the sloth, aikl various other tenants of the
forest, and the hissing of the monkey pursued by
the tiger to the very tops of the trees. Arrived
at the mouth of the Apure, where it enters into
the Oronoco, an immense expanse of water lies
before them ; they ascend: this enormous stream,
pass within view.of thee mountains of EilCara-
mpda, and arrive at the mouth of the Neils, a
noble affluent of a colossal river: they continue
their course against this. mass, swelled by fresh
rivers ,and impAed by .the celebrated cataracts
of Mosputes ;.'e...14 after Jhaving gone over the
space of 70 leagues on. the impetuous Oronoco,
they. stop an instant at San Fernando de Atabapo,
where the 'mystery of it.. branches begins to be
disclosed... I leave on the right the vast mouth
of the Guaviari, which, from the size of its bed,
the volume of its_ waters, and the length of its
course, may dispute with the Oronoco the ho-
nour of giving its_ name to the principal river,
lin I repose for a moment on the batiks or the
Atahapo, which is the channel of our discoveries.
Before i,ve ascend this last stream, let us con-
template the phenomenon presented by the junc-
tion of three rivers, the names of which I have
just mentioned. If we turn to the beautiful
map in the Atlas, 'marked No. 16, we there ob-
Serve with astonishment the .figure of a cross
formed by the
.concourse of three rivers. The
Oronoco, or at least. the stream of water to which
we grant arbitrarily the honour of bearing the
principal name conies, from. the East, and flows
direct to the +l,-est, after- it has received the
waters of the Ventuarii tinder the same parallel,
but in an opposite course, the Rio-Gnaviari runs
direct to the East, and would -drive back the
waters of the Oronoco, if the tivo. rivers, after
their junction, did ,not. bend towards the North,
each describing a right angle with,•the anterior
direction of its course ; the Oronoco then forms
two branches of the cross-before-mentioned, the
Gnaviari represents the third, and the Atabapo,
which flows: from the South to the. North, arrives
exactly at the point of junction to form the lower
branch. If this disposition is not unique in the
annals of potamography, it is at least Very un-
common. Here I may properly introduce an
observatiorr, which will not be devoid of interest
to the lovers or geography. The Readers whom
these details fatigue have long since deserted my
article, therefore I hoe no fear of displeasing
them.

About fifteen years ago, a distinguished French
critic published some remarks 'on the course of
the Niger. He advanced an opinion, that this
river communicated directly or irtdirectly with
the Bahr-el-Abiad, which is the true Nile.
Some years after-wards, several travellers and
geographers pretended to prove that the Joliba
or Niger emptied itself into the Atlantic Ocean,
and even in the Gulf of Guinea. Either owing
to prepossession for his own opinion, or from
some other motive, this able writer denied the
theory by which a river, flowing from the South-
west to the North-east for such a great dis-
tance, should afterwards take quite an op-
posite direction, and return to- the cardinal
point from which 'it set out. In reply, the
instance of the Oronoco was quoted, and as
there is no arguing against well ascertained facts,
he gave up his objection, still retaining some
doubts on the point. It is in fact very true that
the river to which we give the name of Oronoco,
describes, in its general course, the three sides of
a large quadrilater, and that, after having formed
two right angles, it returus towards the cardinal
point from which it is supposed to come. But
the personal observations apd the reasonings of
M. de Humboldt destroy absolutely this theory,
and restore,.in full force, the original objection
of the French Critic against the improbability of
a river, in its second course, flowing back to
its source. The following is an abridgement of
the observations of our learned Traveller :—On
reaching the junction of the Guaviari and the
Oronoco M. de Htmiboldt found that the two
streams were at least :equal in breadth and vo-
lume, and that one was, therefore, as much en-
titled as the other to furnish-the name of the prin-
cipal river, nor could it be said. with.-greater pro.
priety that the Guaviari emptied itself into the
Oronoco than that the Oronoco entered tire Gua-
viari. But he adds that the waters of the stream
which comes from the East, and which we call
the Upper Oronoco, are of a different colour and
taste from those of the Guaviari and the whole
of the Lower Oronoco. He says further, that
the great crocodiles and the dolphins, equally
common in the Lower Oronoco and the Gua-
viari, never enter the stream that conies from the
East, which proves a difference in the nature of
the waters. Lastly, he informs us that the In-
dians consider the Guaviari as the principal river,
and the Upper Oronoco as an affluent. M. de
Humboldt is, therefore, fully convinced that
this great river has not an unnatural course, as is
represented in our maps, but, on the contrary, it
takes a very natural direction, because the Gua-
viari, which is the true river, comes from the
South-west, and flows to the North-east. How-
ever the learned Traveller submits to the receiv-
ed opinion, though he proves' its fallacy, " be-
cause in matters of nomenclature acid orthography
it is often prudent to follow an error which we
have just discovered."—We cannot, therefore, in
future adduce the authority•of the Oronoco in
supporting any hypothesis which assigns an 'un-
natural course to every river, the mouth of which
remains unknown. Let us however conclude the