The
Napo is a tributary to the
Amazon River and rises on the flanks of the volcanoes of
Antisana[?],
Sincholagua[?] and
Cotopaxi[?]. Before it reaches the plains it
receives a great number of small streams from impenetrable,
saturated and much broken mountainous districts, where the
dense and varied vegetation seems to fight for every square
foot of ground. From the north it is joined by the river
Coca, having its sources in the gorges of [Cayambe]] on the
equator, and also a powerful river, the
Aguarico[?], having
its headwaters between Cayambe and the Colombian frontier.
From the west it receives a secondary tributary, the
Curaray[?],
from the Andean slopes, between Cotopaxi and the
volcano of
Tunguragua[?]. From its Coca branch to the mouth of the Curaray
the Napo is full of snags and shelving sandbanks, and throws
out numerous canos among jungle-tangled islands, which
in the wet season are flooded, giving the river an immense
width. From the Coca to the Amazon it runs through a forested
plain where not a hill is visible from the river -- its
uniformly level banks being only interrupted by
swamps and
lagoons. From the Amazon the Napo is navigable for river
craft up to its Curaray branch, a distance of about 216 m.,
and perhaps a few miles further; thence, by painful canoe
navigation, its upper waters may be ascended as far as
Santa Rosa[?], the usual point of embarkation for any venturesome
traveller who descends from the
Quito tableland. The Coca
river may be penetrated as far up as its middle course, where
it is jammed between two mountain walls, in a deep canyon, along
which it dashes over high falls and numerous reefs. This is
the stream made famous by the expedition of
Gonzalo Pizarro[?].
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