Exploring the Upper Reaches of Orinoco

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7201, 26 April 1930, Page 17

Exploring the Upper Reaches of Orinoco

AMERICAN EXPEDITION. NEW YORK. Intent on finding (he headwaters of the Orinoco river by substituting gifts and persuasion for bullets, Dr. Herbert BpenCer Dickey and a party of four left here recently on tho Dominica of the Trinidad Line for South America. The Orinoco is the only large river in the world whose source remains unexplor-

Tho party will carry no firearms, but will have £2O worth of harmonicas, horns, rattles and other trinkets for the Indians in the legion near the river. During the last decade five exploring parties from the United States, France find Italy have failed the’’river because of the hostility of the river because o film hostility of the Guaharibo Indians Who inhabit the region near the head. Dr. Dickey during, the lust 30 years has made seven expeditions into unexplored regions, never with firearms, Mrs. Dickey, who will be oiic of the members of the party, has accompanied her husband on four of his previous trips. Members of tho party, in addition to Dr. and Mrs. Dickey, will be Arthur Von BriesCll Mcnkin, photographer; Robert Durrctt, radio operator, and Maj. De Forest Morton, practical astronomer and topographer. The expedition is being sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian of which Dr. Dickey is a staff member, and it is financed by the museum and Dr. Dickey himself. A trek cross country of about 100 miles is expected, but the rest of the trip.will be by boat. Equipment will be of the simplest, but complete. Provisions will be carried for soveri months.

At Esmeralda, a tiny outpost about 1000 miles up the fiver, the party will establish its base. Mr. Durrctt, the radio operator, and Mrs. Dickey will remain at this base, While Dr. ‘Dickey and the two other members of the party make a dash with Indian porters for the head of the river.

Dr. Dickey estimates that tho source of the Orinoco is about ten days travel beyond Esmeralda in the Parima Mountains between Brazil and Venezuela. Tho body of the river is in Venezuela and forms part of tho boundary between Colombia and Venezuela. Dr. Diekcy rnaclo a previous effort to reach its headwaters, but was forced to turn back when the outboard motor on his canoe failed just before he reached Esmeralda. Mrs. Dickey will collect birds and small mammals alive for the Noiv York Zoological Gardens. Both Dr. and Mrs. Dickey arc fellows of the Royal Geographical Society, and Df. Dickey speaks five South American Indian languages.