The Rio Branco (engl. White river) is the principal affluent of the Rio Negro (engl. Black river) from the north; it is enriched by many streams from the sierras which separate Venezuela and Guyana from Brazil. Its two upper main tributaries are the Uraricoera and the Takutu. The latter almost links its sources with those of the Essequibo.
The Branco flows nearly south, and finds its way into the Negro through several channels and a chain of lagoons similar to those of the latter river. It is 350 miles (560 km) long, up to its Uraricoera confluence. It has numerous islands, and, 235 miles (378 km) above its mouth, it is broken by a bad series of rapids.
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“This spirit it was which so early carried the French to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi on the north, and the Spaniard to the same river on the south. It was long before our frontiers reached their settlements in the West, and a voyageur or coureur de bois is still our conductor there.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)