The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-10-25
UP THE MIGHTY ORINOCO.
IIN IMPENETR4BLE FOREST BORDERS
Nearly a Thousand Miles of the AIejes tIe RIver-The Tabled FL Dorado.

Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier.)
 Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela.
 Sept. 20 1902 We have come three hundred and | sixty miles up the Orinoco to the one important city in all it's course, yet ! have hardly entered upon the eXplora- 1 ton of the majestic stream which, as ] every school-boy knows, is more than 1 two thousand miles long. It is impos- sibIe to give a satisfactory description of this OrinocO region, because there is l nothing like it in the world with which l to make comparisons. You find great ! difficulty in realizing that here. amid 1 surroundings as strange and unreal as the fables and traditions connected with the locality, you are only weeks I journey from New York city.
 The easiest way to ascend the Orino- co is to go to Port-of- Spain, Island of Trinidad, and there take one of the | American side-wheel steamers that 1 regularly make the trip. The ''Orinoco | Steamship Line" having virtual mo- nopoly charges high price for it's by l no means princely accommodations 1 twenty dollars in gold for a run of l thirty-six hours. From Port-of-S Spain you proceed along the southern coast | of Trinidad, through La Boca del Si- erpe ("The Serpents Mouth'D, into the l great Gulf of Paria, which separates the asphalt island from the mainland of Venezuela. Twenty hours later you 1 reach the delta of the Orinoco and take ! frt,E l river has several so-called mouths '' One, known as Rio Casrina, seeks the | sea by a course nearly parallel to the main mouth, but is navigable only by l vessels drawing less than ten feet of l water Another, called Rio Macaro. is l perhaps two miles wide and flows through a beautiful jungle of tropical l undergrowth, bordered by broad-leaved | aquatic plants, but is obstructed by | many islands. The real mouth is | twenty miles wde without a single | point to break the glorious view; and as the steamer slowly makes it's way up stream, new and delightful scenes are perpetually unfolded. The thick. yellow current of the Orinoco is not unlike that of the Amazon, except that
 
 | merable grassy islands and huge tree l trunks that are always to be seen | floating on the sister river. The Orino- | CO., however, has many large islands, but they are stationary, and for thou | sand miles it's banks are much the same as those of the Amazon-an end less panorama of tropical verdure, magnificent trees, set in serried ranks i close to the waters edge and draped, as with gorgeous curtain, by an inn penetrable network of vines, blossom l ing creepers and orchids in every con- | ceivable variety. Often that splendid parasite, the matapal6, (the word lite l rally translated means kill tree'D, has I wrapped its deadly folds around seve- | ral adjacent monarchs of the forest, and the trees having perished in its
 embrace, the matapalo stands alone in solid walls of green, like some huge, ivy-mantled tower. Here and there a flock of f1amingoes makes brilliant
 scarlet patch; or tall blue heron, or snow white crane stands meditatively
 upon one leg, as if posed for Japa- nese picture. Green and yellow ma cans, with deep crimson on head and
 breast, fly heavily past; parrots and
 smaller birds of rainbow Colors sing or
 scream, and monkeys chatter among the leaves. The lovely solitude is all
 most as unbroken as when the first
 Spaniard pushed his prow up the riv-
 er Most of it has never been inhabi-
 ted by the human species, and proba-
 bly, never will be; but occasional vio-
 lent agitation of the verdure, or ar
 ugly crocodile's head, or if you lister
 intently, distant howls, roars shrieks and means give evidence of beast anC
 reptile life that would better be avoid.
 ed. At rare intervals a company O
 Guaraon Indians paddle out to mee
 the steamer, in canoes roughly hol
 lowed from the trunks of mahogany
 trees These wild folk who come tt
 beg of their self-styIed conquerors, art
 in reality as independent of control al
 were their forefathers before the arri
 val of Columbus. Nobody dispute
 their possessions of thousands of mile
 of well-nigh impenetrable forest, who's
 foundation, set in slimy ooze or deel
 under water, are never seen by the sun and where the only neighbors are hug
 serpents jaguars, alligators and {
 thousand deadly things that creep ant
 crawl unhindered in the wilderness
 Many miles apart you see tiny vii lages set close to the shore, thei } w-thatched huts huddled togethe l for mutual protection. Being open ol all sides, except a pole at each corne
 and the roof atop, the interiors" ar
 fully disclosed, showing the only house 1 hold furnishings to be a few cookin , pots of baked clay, grass hammock , slung high, and various hunting am ; fishing implements of home manufac , ture The naked Indians who owl