Of an unexplored country such as that of the Piaroas little or nothing can be said definitely with regard to the products, but the observations of travellers as to the country along the river banks and the circumstantial accounts of the remainder derived from some of the inhabitants point to this region as one rich in all manner of resources. Near the Orinoco and at intervals throughout the region there are grass plains, or savannahs, which may some day, like those elsewhere in Guayana, support many thousand head of cattle. In the forests which surround these savannahs there are quantities of untouched rubber-trees (_Hevea guianensis_ and _H. Brasilensis_). Though near the rivers, the wild rubber has been exploited to some small extent, not always wisely, the output of the district is very far below what it might be, apart from the possibility of plantation rubber, the lack of development being due, as throughout the Orinoco region, to lack of population. Practically all the available hands work at the collection of rubber, but a few trees of _Bertholettia excelsa_, the Brazil-nut, have been planted near San Fernando, and the enormous quantities of wild nuts which at present lie on the ground and rot will doubtless one day be systematically collected and exported; to mention only one other of the many forest products, there are, along the Orinoco below San Fernando, many natural cacao patches (_Theobroma cacao_), as yet untouched and undeveloped. It is hardly necessary to speak of the valuable timber-trees of which the forests are largely composed, and the quantity of natural vegetable products of the region is as yet only to be surmised from the casual specimens brought in by natives or travellers. Nor is there lack of mineral resources; the _lajas_ which so often occur both in the savannahs and as bare patches in the midst of the forest frequently show indications of metallic ores, and below Pericos, on the Orinoca, copper is said to be visible in the river banks. The Indians frequently show specimens of ores, iron, manganese, copper, and even gold, the localities of which they are not unnaturally unwilling to reveal until there is some prospect of development of the “mine.” Finally, the big falls on the Cataniapo and Sipapo and other tributaries of the Orinoco, with the rapids of the main river, promise a supply of power in the Piaroa territory sufficient for all probable demands for many years to come. The 75 kilometres of open water between the Atures and Maipures Rapids is navigable for steamers during the greater part of the year, but the upper of the two great “raudales” proves a bar again to through communication with the upper Orinoco and its tributaries. Above Maipures, however, there is no serious hindrance to navigation, even through to the Amazon basin by way of the Casiquiare bifurcation. [Illustration: CROSSING THE TORBES IN FLOOD.]