Perrico was formerly the port of call for sailing craft below Atures. At the time of our arrival there was nothing whatever there, not even a single hut. We continued up the river half a mile to a place called Vagre; here we found the remains of two palm-leaf huts, long since fallen down and overgrown with vegetation. In the small clearing a few cotton-stalks, beans, pawpaws, and castor-bean bushes still struggled for existence with the invading hosts of creepers and second-growth sprouts; the forest was rapidly reclaiming its own. On the sandy river-bank were the tracks of jaguars and caimans. At this point the river is divided into a number of branches by islands, and the one on which Vagre was situated is not over five hundred feet wide. Beyond this point a boat of any size cannot proceed; it is the foot of the series of cataracts, six miles long, known as the rapids of Atures. We sent a man overland to Zamuro for a _falca_, which is a canoe with the sides heightened with boards; and while our luggage was being rowed up the swift stream, we walked near the bank. The aneroid, read at water-level, gave an elevation of three hundred and fifty feet; perhaps this is somewhat too high. Between Vagre and Zamuro a row of rounded, black rocks rise to a height of two hundred and fifty feet above the river, on the eastern side. Many boulders of enormous proportions lie sprinkled about in the most irregular manner, as far as we could see, and in spots there are outcroppings of ledges of quartz. The tops of the rounded granite hills are hard and glazed, so that they glisten in the sunlight as if covered with a coating of ice. There are but a few stunted trees, and where any vegetation can get a foothold tough, wiry grass grows; this is the home of many rabbits and rattlesnakes. Zamuro we found to consist of three grass huts newly built and occupied by sick, miserable Venezuelan families. The heat is terrific, and mosquitoes and sand-flies first begin to make their presence known in considerable numbers. The river scenery is really magnificent; huge boulders of fantastic shape strew the river-bed, and rear their heads high above the seething torrent; against them the water dashes ceaselessly, surging and swirling in mad endeavors to destroy them, only to be baffled by the immovable sentinels and hurled back again to collide with their brethren equally unrelenting and equally impervious to the roaring onslaught. The scene is awe-inspiring. The next step was to secure ox-carts to carry the _impedimenta_ to the Rio Catañapo, three miles away, and this we crossed in a canoe, landing practically at Atures. The governor of the Upper Orinoco, General Roberto Pulido, made Catañapo his home. He was ordinarily supposed to reside in San Fernando de Atabapo, but on account of his arbitrary methods of government he was so greatly disliked that he decided it was “healthier” to live elsewhere.