JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geographical Review.[With separate map, P1. II*, facing p. 566] T HE geographers of Eur,ope are no doubt in the wrong not to embrace the way of thinking of the Indians, who are the geographers of their own country."' When Humboldt made this comment, he had in mind a vast, unexplored, unexploited region in equatorial Venezuela and adjoining Brazil-the territory of the upper Orinoco River, the Casiquiare Canal (the existence of which was still debated by certain Europeans), and Guainia River. Such a country, bounded west and south by the Orinoco and on the east by the Ventuari, still exists, keeping the details of its locational geography for its own geographers. But even a slight acquaintance with some of the "uncivilized" inhabitants will soon convince one of their keen understanding of their country and its resources. The outside world has penetrated in search of marketable products only along the routes of least resistance. If it were not for the airplane, the camera, and the outboard motor, it would still be impossible to prepare even a summary description of the region without months of difficult travel.
PURPOSE OF THE EXPEDrrIONThe expedition that the writer had the pleasure of accompanying was planned and organized by Mr. William H. Phelps, Jr., primarily for the purpose of collecting the subtropical and tropical avifauna of the Rlo Ventuari region. Residents on the lower Ventuari had told of higher country upstream. Elsewhere in the Venezuelan Guayana isolated mountains rising *Grateful acknowledgement is dtue to Mr. Williamn Briesemeister for assistafice in the-construction of maps of the Rio Ventuari and of the Rio Manapiare basins and to Mr. E. D. Weldon for preparation of the finished drawings. I 526 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW into subtropical altitudes and surrounded by tropical lowland are known to support an extraordinary series of life forms, evolved, at least in part, into a specialized endemic flora and fauna.2 Mt. Roraima is perhaps the best known of these mountains, and collections were obtained from it as far back as I842. Birds have since been collected from similar subtropical mountains to the west Auyan-tepui, Ptari-tepui, Chimanta-tepui, Guaiquinima, Duida, and Sipapo (or Paraque). Except for Roraima and Duida, the collections are the result of the efforts of Mr. Phelps and his father. It was hoped that the mountains reported in the upper Ventuari region would furnish an intermediate station to assist in solving the problem of bird evolution and distribution in the broad Venezuelan Guayana.A study of air photographs revealed a promising area, not in the region...
