The total length of the Orinoco is about 1,500 miles, but if measured by its Guaviari branch it is several hundred miles longer. It reaches its maximum height in August. To its point of junction with the Guaviare it takes a north-west course. Ninety miles before its union with that stream it receives its principal eastern affluent, the Ventuario. From the Guaviare it runs north nearly as far as the Apure, where it suddenly turns east. Between the Guaviare and the Meta the course of the river is obstructed by the Maipures Rapids, which extend for a length of four miles, with a total fall of about 40 feet. Below this the Atures Rapids cover a distance of about six miles, falling about 30 feet. Navigation is then free for about 700 miles, as far as the rapids of Cariben, within six miles of the mouth of the Meta. The river at this point is about a mile wide. Its course continues to the north, and at the mouth of the Apure it is two miles wide in the dry season, and about seven when in flood. At Cariben it rises 32 feet; but at the Angostura, or ‘Narrows,’ 372 miles from the sea, it has risen to 60 feet. It enters the sea by its main trunk, the Boca Grande. About 100 miles above its mouth it throws off a branch northward to the Gulf of Paria, also 100 miles in length. Six other considerable arms find their way to the ocean across a vast delta about 7,000 square miles in area. The Boca Grande is the deepest and main navigable entrance at all seasons, the muddy bar usually maintaining a depth of 16 feet. The basin of the Orinoco covers an area of 364,500 square miles.
The principal affluents flowing from the Andean slopes are the Apure, the Arauca, the Meta, and the Guaviare.
The Apure is 695 miles long, of which 564 are navigable. The Apure in its turn receives numerous tributaries, some of which are navigable for short distances.
The Arauca, the Meta and the Guaviare, are also navigable.
The Casiquiare Canal unites the upper Orinoco with the Rio Negro branch of the Amazon. It is about 300 miles long, with an average depth of 30 feet, and has a strong current in the direction of the Negro. The list of affluents of the Orinoco and of its tributaries would be a very long one, and would serve no useful purpose here.
Evidently the Orinoco and the Orinoco system, with their innumerable ramifications in all directions, form a basis for the easy exploitation of the vast sources of natural wealth which exist in the immense territory through which their waters flow.
That territory lies within the borders of the Republics of Colombia and Venezuela. Up to the present neither nation has seriously attempted to utilize the valuable elements so bountifully offered by Nature. In the matter of navigation, ocean-going steamers sail frequently as far as Ciudad Bolivar. From this latter point river steamers ply once or twice a month up the Orinoco, turning into the Apure as far as San Fernando de Apure, and during the tonga-bean harvest follow the course of the main river generally as far as the Caura, where the harvesters established their central camps a good many years ago. An effort was made to establish navigation on the Orinoco and its affluents above the rapids, and also to run small steamers in the navigable part between the Atures and Maipures rapids; but the French company, which held a charter practically placing the whole region at its disposal, failed of its object, after spending a considerable amount of money. During our journey, in several places we could see, rotting in the sun, the remnants of broken-down steamers, which appeared uncanny objects in those surroundings. The rapids, acting as a barrier, have deterred traders and explorers. The upper part of the Orinoco is the most abundant in natural wealth. As I have had occasion to note in these pages, india-rubber, piazaba, tonga bean, resinous and medicinal plants, are found in practically unlimited quantities along the shores of all the rivers above the rapids, and the small proportion which is gathered is generally shipped through the Rio Negro by way of the Amazon, as traders prefer that long and tedious journey to the difficulties of the Orinoco Rapids.
Yet to give life to the Orinoco, to establish a stream of natural products down its waters, and to facilitate the opening of the forests and mountains beyond the rapids, it would not be necessary to carry out work of a very stupendous nature, beyond the resources of the peoples and the nations most interested in the work. A cursory glance at the elements of the problem reveals the possibility of carrying out a plan, the general outlines of which might be the following:
A line of steamers should be established plying at least twice a month between Ciudad Bolivar and the highest accessible point for navigation below the Atures Rapids.
The old road along the rapids, which extended from that highest point of navigation to beyond Maipures where the river is again free and open, should be reconstructed. A railway could be built along either shore, the ground being mostly level and hard. It would not be necessary to undertake great engineering works, and the road-bed itself would require neither deep cuttings nor terracing, nor expensive culverts and works of drainage, and the few bridges required, being of short span, would not run into high figures.