Oft the Natural H'ljlory of Guiana, 3OI 



ibontlis. They are well known by the name of Norths. They are -often accompanied 

 with rain ; but Ft is not very heavy, nor thouglit of confequence enough to give the denomi- 

 nation of a rainy feafon. Thefe winds virc know to reach as far as the coaft of Guiana; 

 and there I have reafon to believe they are productive of more rain than in the iflands. 

 The face of a large continent, and its effects upon the atmofphere, may very probably 

 make them give up more of their humidity than they do among the Antilles, though at 

 the fame time their force and bleaknefs may not be fo much felt. If this conje£lure hits 

 the truth, the following ought to be the corollaries, and are left to future obfervation : — In 

 this rainy feafon, when the fun is near the fouthern folftice, their rains will be with pretty 

 fteady northerly breezes on the coaft. They may be of longer continuance at a time, but 

 they will not be fo heavy as thofe of funimer, and they will be chiefly on the fea-coaft, and 

 probably will not extend a great way up the country. It remains even a query with me, 

 whether the rain that accompanies the norths among the iflands, efpecially thofe mod re- 

 mote from the line, be not generally in a greater proportion than is commonly fuppofed.* 



Country. — I will now endeavour to give you fome idea of the face of the country. 

 Though, as is well known, Guiana is flat and fwampy, yet it aftbrds to the attentive eye an 

 Interefling variety. The fea- coaft is little if at all raifed above the level of high water, 

 and is continued at this level for many miles inland. It is properly an iramenfe woody 

 fwamp, never dry in the drieft feafon, covered with feveral feet of water in the wet. Next 

 tlie (hore, as far as the brackifli water extends, it is covered with mangrove^, which grow 

 to a conGderable height and form a thick (hade. They are elevated on their branchy in- 

 termingled roots from the bare wet clay or mud, on which there is fcarcely one herb or 

 plant, but which feems to be all in motion from the prodigious number of crabs whicli 

 make their holes in it. Further on, when the under water is frefli, you meet with a ne\f 

 fet of vegetables, principally fmall trees, which from their fituation are obliged to adopt 

 the habits of mangroves, having the bottom of their trunks fupported three or four feet 

 above ground by their ramified roots. Several climbing plants are mixed with them. 

 Arunis in great variety and profufion emerge from the water, or embrace the ftems of the 

 trees j and feveral broad-leafed plants of the hexandria and triandria clafles aflTift the aruni* 

 in forming an herbage. In all this low part of Demerary there is not one tree of a large 

 fize, nor among them all above two or three fpecies which can be applied to ufe as timber. 

 Proceeding ftill up the river, its banks are found generally to raifc themfelves above the 

 level of the water ; and when you have gone up one tide (betwixt twenty and thirty 

 miles), they are fo high that there is no farther occafion for dams to keep the plantation! 

 from being overflowed at high water, as below : canals or ditches are fuflicient to drain 

 the land, which is ftill perfeftly flat. The trees are here different in fpecies and larger ia 

 fize than below, and the woods are much more pradlicable. As they are drier, the ground 

 has acquired a regular fort of furface, and there is neither that plexus of roots nor the 

 fame number of vines (the common name in the Weft Indies for all climbrng plants) to 

 entangle thofe who choofe to traverfe them. The foil here is generally a ftjfF, cold, reddilh 

 clay, tnixed a -top with a portion of vegetable mould. 



The fand-hills prefent to the admiring eye a fcene very different from what it had beea^ 

 accuftomed to btlow. The hrft you meet with upon t!ie Demerary is upwards of thirty 

 miles from the mouth of the river, and on the right hand afcending, or on its weftcrn (hore. 



Vol. II.— Oct. 1758, Rr There 



f 



