There is abundant rubber in the forests, but the life of the inhabitants of the small settlements, which are mainly supported by this industry, is a miserable one. They live chiefly on cassava, accompanied by much alcohol in one form or another, from champagne to raw sugar spirit; if other beverages fail, they have even fallen back on eau-de-Cologne, brought from Pará or Ciudad Bolivar and, one would have imagined, too expensive a luxury to be imbibed in quantity. The Casiquiare discharges its waters into the Guainia, or more correctly, the two streams join to form the Rio Negro, the river being known by that name below the junction. The highest village of importance on the Guainia is Maroa, the seat of government of the Rio Negro district. The Guainia being a clear, deep (_i.e._, black) stream, with a cloudless sky overhead and no mosquitoes, Maroa enjoys a good climate. Its inhabitants cultivate an excellent quality of manioc and manufacture hammocks. The forests of the Guainia and Rio Negro are comparatively little known, though some rubber is collected along the banks. The old settlement of San Carlos, on the Rio Negro, is now abandoned, and beyond this there are no Venezuelan villages before the hill known as the Cerro del Cucuhy, which marks the Brazilian frontier, and beyond lies the military station of Cucuhy, occupied by soldiers of the latter republic. Although, as we have seen, it is possible to travel by water from the Orinoco to the Amazon, the more direct route up the Atabapo and across the “Isthmus” of Pimichin to the Guainia is generally used by the Indians and traders. Above San Fernando there are no towns on the banks of the Atabapo, though many native villages. To the south-east of the capital is the wide savannah of Santa Barbara, capable of supporting a vast number of cattle. Farther south the banks are forest-covered, and when the head of navigation is reached at Yavita the route across to Pimichin lies between giant trees, which have attracted the attention of many travellers. The watershed here between the two rivers has no great elevation, and it would be possible to excavate a canal and so provide a far shorter waterway between the two great river systems. Whether such a project will ever seem to be justified is another matter.