- 350 0» the Natural Hlflotj aj Guiana, 



here beat continually upon a lee fliore. We find therefotc on the coaft, that the fea ha« 

 made here and there confiderable encroachments, which generally begin on the weft fide of 

 the canals or ditches, as being the moft afted upon by the waves. The mouth of the De- 

 nierary itfelf furnifties us with a ftrong iiidance. That river is now nearly twice as wide as 

 it was when the country firft began to be cleared, the fea and the ftream together having 

 fince that fwept away a large portion of land from the weftern fhore. 



Creeks. — A number of creeks fall into the Demerary on both fides, but fo fmall that they 

 bear no proportion to the fize of the river. You can hardly diftiriguifli their mouths in the 

 woods which overhang the banks. They are fo narrow, that it is difficult to run a fmall boat 

 in them ; yet you will find in them throughout from two and a half to four fathom water, 

 and they run winding fo far back that it will take five, fix, eight hours, or more, to carry 

 you up to their heads, where they terminate In fmall ftreams from among the fand-hllls. 

 The banks of the creeks, at their mouths, are of the fame height as thofe of the river clofe, 

 from five perhaps to twelve feet above the water in the dry feafon. As you afcend the 

 creek, you might naturally expect to find them rife. It is, however, the very reverfe ; 

 they become gradually lower and lower, till at lafl: all round them is a fwanip : and the 

 trees on each fide, in like manner, become fmaller and fmaller, and of different fpecles 

 from what they were. It is now, in fhort, exactly a mangrove fwamp, with this difference, 

 that the water is quite frefli, the vegetables are not the fame, and there are abundance of 

 arunis and other low herbaceous plants. A little higher up, you lofe the wood altogether, 

 and find yourfelf in a beautiful deep canal, winding through a fpaclous wetfavannah, which 

 is fometimes many leagues in circumference. The firft time we went up one of thefc 

 creeks (called CamounI), I was furprifed at this appearance, and thought it muft be a mere 

 local circumftance peculiar to It. We found afterwards the fame in one or two more in- 

 ftances, and were fatisfied upon enquiry that it Is common to them all. It was natural to 

 look for an explanation of this phenomenon, and I foon found It in one of thofe laws 

 which probably extend to all rivers fubje£l to frequent inundations. It has been obferved 

 in particular of the Ganges *, that the banks of that river are higher than the adjacent 

 lands at a diftance from the ftream, owing no doubt to the annual depofitions of mud, 

 &c. during the fwell of the river. Apply the fame rule to the Demerary, and the dilfi- 

 culty will be folved. The wet favannahs behind, and the fwampy woods around them, 

 are the body of the low country, at Its natural level fcarcely a foot or two above the fea. 

 Whatever additional height the land has in the vicinity of the river, from the time you 

 have afcended about twenty miles or fo, is all acquired. It has rifen from the fedlment 

 of the river during the rainy feafon, when the country is overflowed, fo as that all the 

 lower part of it is under water. This depofitlon muft be always more copious in propor- 

 tion as It is nearer the ftream, where additional quantities are always brought, and where 

 It is kept in motion both by the current and the tide. 



Every thing we afterwards faw confirmed this theory, and nothing more directly than 

 the canals which run out at right angles from the river. Some of thefe extend four miles 

 inward, and they prove to a demonftratlon that the land becomes lower and lower the far- 

 ther you recede from the river. The maps of the colonies confirm it ; for in all of them 



• Account of the Ganges, &c. Phil. Tranf. 1781, by Major Rennell. 



the 



