298 On the Natural Hijory of Gu'mna. 



rica, from the Amazons to the Oroonoko ; that it trends nearly N. W. and S. E. ; that if 

 is in genera! a very low and flat country, efpecially the Dutch or wefternmoft part of it; 

 and that it is watered by feveral rivers and creelcs, which rife in a chain of mountains 

 running nearly E. and W. and dividing Guiana from the inland parts of South America, 

 which form the banks of the Amazons and its numerous branches. 



Coajl. — No coaft can be more eafy to make tlxan that of Guiana. The changed colour 

 of the water indicates foundings long before you make the land, and you may run on in 

 feven fathoms before you can difcover it from the deck. The bottom is at that diftance a 

 foft mud. All along the coaft near Demerary, you have only about two fathoms at a good 

 league from the (liore ; to leeward of Efiequebo, it deepens flill more gradually. In Hand- 

 ing off or on five or fix miles, you will hardly deepen or (hallow the water as many feet. 

 When a high fea fets in upon fuch a coaft, it is eafy to conceive that at a very confiderable 

 diftance from the land it muft be affefted by the bottom. The interval betwixt wave and 

 wave becomes more diftindl. As they roll on in fucceffion, the lower part is retarded, tl:e 

 uppcrfurface accelerated: each billow of courfe becomes fteeper and more abrupt, till at laft 

 it gradually ends in a breaker, when it has come to the depth of only a few feet. Thefe 

 rollers as they are called are the dread of feamen, efpecially betwixt Efiequebo and Po- 

 nieroon, where the water is (hallow, and the bearing of the coaft very much north and fouth, 

 and expofes it fully to the a£tion of the trade winds. In fmall craft, thofe acquainted with 

 navigation do not hefitate to run along the coaft, even among the rollers themfelves ; but 

 '■tlTels drawing from eight to twelve feet water, efpecially if the fwell be heavy and it falls 

 calm, can hardly get oS. If anchor and cables fail, they drift on till they are faft in the 

 mud, and there they will continue fometimes for weeks together before they go to pieces. 

 The fea water becomes exceedingly thick and muddy within a few leagues from the coaft 

 of Demerary, as much or more fo than the Thames is at London. A ftranger would 

 naturally take this for the difcharge of large flooded rivers after a rainy feafon. By and by 

 I (hall explain the true caufe of it. 



On approaching the continent of South America, a change on the face of the (ky will 

 ftrike the attentive obferver. The clouds become lefs diftin£l from each other, and the 

 intervals between them lefs clear. They are blended into one another as it were, and 

 fuffufed more generally over the atmofphere. They appear to be furchargcd with vapour, 

 •r toliave a ftronger difpofition to depofit it. 



There is a particular prevailing appearance of the heavens within the tropics, when you 

 are at a diftance from continents or very high iflands, which has fo often ftruck me that I 

 wonder it has not been taken notice of. I call it a tropical fky, and thus defcribe it. The 

 clouds in fine weather are in a fingle feries or ftratum, failing away regularly with the trade- 

 winds. They are fmall, and diftindlly feparated from each other. The intervals or fky 

 above them of a clear azure. The lower furface of the clouds is perfedly horizontal. As 

 the temperature is commonly very equal over the fea, the condenfation takes place every 

 wbere at an equal height from the furface of the water. In the clouds that are over head 

 you cannot indeed perceive this ; but it becomes more and more vifible as the eye recedes 

 from the zenith. The lower limb of each diftant cloud appears perfeclly level and well 

 defined, brighter than the fuperincumbent part. At a diftance nothing is to be feen but 

 thefe limbs clofer and clofer in gradation, one behind the other ; and the whole horizon 



roun4 



