Note 6 — Chapter V · EL RIO META

Speaking of the Meta, Padre Gilli says: “Its width is greater than that of a dozen Tibers, and in the summer season, when the wind is high, the waves become very large.”6 Far from being an exaggeration, as might appear to the reader, this statement is rather an underestimate of the reality, at least as regards its breadth. In places it is fully two miles wide—almost as broad as the Orinoco near the delta. And this is not because of the shallowness of the river. According to Humboldt, its mean depth near its mouth is thirty-six feet, and it sometimes attains to more than twice this depth.