THE MIGHTY ORINOCO with a FALCA

[aukepalmhof]

An 8 franc 1955 issue by Monaco (one of a series of eleven stamps (commemorating Verne novels). Though the river scene shown which does not repeat any one of Roux's illustrations, it does combine recurring elements of his images: a vault of thick vegetation framing a view of the river, a reclining jaguar, falca’s moving against the current. No intrigue or peril is intimated here, and certainly no mystery of disguise and discovery. So in this instance is a pure travel narrative.

Aak to Zumbra a dictionary of the World’s Watercraft gives on the falca’s.
The falca you can find in northern South America, notably Guyana, Suriname and eastern Venezuela.
She is a dugout made from one three trunk which is expanded, which has had 1 – 3 planks permanently added on is called a “falca”.
Ends generally closed off by boards,
Thwarts and ribs usually added to brace the planks. Frequently has a thatched house aft.
Reported lengths 6 – 7 metre.
She can carry up to 20 persons, but mostly she takes not more as 5 to 6.

The Mighty Orinoco (French: Le Superbe Orénoque) is a novel by French writer Jules Verne (1828–1905), first published in 1898 as a part of the Voyages Extraordinaires. It tells the story of young Jeanne's journey up the Orinoco River in Venezuela with her protector, Sergeant Martial, in order to find her father, Colonel de Kermor, who disappeared some years before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mighty_Orinoco

The novel is set in 1893. A young Frenchman, Jean de Kermor, and his uncle, the sergeant Martial, set out on an expedition to the headwaters of the Orinoco, one of the great rivers of South America. They hope to discover the fate of Jean's father, the Colonel de Kermor, who disappeared fourteen years earlier in self-imposed exile after his wife's death in a shipwreck, believing that their only child had also died. The boy and his uncle join up with an impromptu band of adventurers and scientists, including three cantankerous Venezuelan geographers who animate the novel's comic scenes; and two Frenchmen, the explorer Jacques Helloch and the botanist Germain Paterne, who are cataloguing flora of the Orinoco Basin.
The journey is captivating and perilous. Framed by grassy plains and dense forests, the river and its banks present exotic and inviting panoramas. The travelers are tested by rough water, sudden storms, savage and strange animals, an earthquake, marauding natives, and a group of cutthroat bandits whose leader has an old score to settle with Jean's father. The further upstream the expedition travels, the more numerous and the greater the dangers until, in the novel's climax, Jean and Martial are kidnapped by the bandits. All will end happily, however: the boy and his uncle are rescued by the militia of the Mission de Santa Juana – led by the saintly Father Esperante – the bandits defeated and their leader slain. And in a dénouement as contrived as any in Verne, Esperante is discovered to be Jean's long-lost father, the Colonel de Kermor, and Martial not the Colonel's brother but his faithful servant. Father and child are joyously reunited. The novel ends with a promise of that classic terminus of comedy: a marriage

http://imagetext.english.ufl.edu/archives/v3_1/harpold/
Monaco 1955 8f sg 534, scott 345