The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972906898)

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo13amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



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TO THE MAQUIRITARES' LAND 359 of creepers. Myriads of palms, tall and slender and of many species, rear their heads above the dark green canopy. The water of the stream is of a deep reddish color and so clear as to permit an unobstructed view of the teeming life that flits like shadows over the sandy bottom. Notable among these are rays and electric eels of formidable size, adding very materially to the dangers of navigating the smaller streams. A number of Indian plantations which we visited were entirely deserted, but the large conical huts furnished convenient stopping places for the nights and the fields provided an abundance of fruits and vegetables. We made slow headway on account of the swift current and numerous cataracts. After seven days of the most strenuous kind of work we reached Yacare, the encampment of the Maquiritare chief, Antonio Yarecuma, a
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Duida stands some seven miles from the river. A trail was cut across the intervening low Mils with foot-bridges of felled trees over the small streams to our base of operations at the foot of the mountain. Duida is not an isolated mountain " island " as supposed but connected by hills with the Ventuari and Parima ranges short twenty miles from the mouth of the river. Finding the place deserted, we descended a short distance to near the mouth of a small creek known to the Indians as the Sina. Here a tract was cleared and a temporary camp pitched. Duida, which was usually visible a few minutes at or near ten in the morning, rose boldly but a short distance away. Between us lay a series of low hills covered with comparatively open forest and swampy valleys intersected with small streams. A short time after our arrival our captain succeeded in recruiting five Indians and the entire force was at once set to cutting a trail to the foot of the mountain, where the base of supplies and