CHAPTER I. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



In speaking of the country I cannot do better than to reproduce in part the 

 excellent account from the pen of Wilgress Anderson, F.R.G.S., contained in a 

 work upon the goldfields published a couple of years ago by Mr. J. B. Harrison. 

 The pages of the original are indicated in brackets: 2 



General Physical and Topographical Features of British Guiana. 



[p. 9.] "Situation and Extent. — The region called Guiana, or Guyana, stretches 

 along the northern coast of South America from the mouth of the Orinoco River 

 to that of the Amazon River, and inwards to Brazil. . . . 



" The only European possessions in South America are three in number, and 

 are situated on the central portion of this territory, which is divided into the colo- 

 nies of the British, Dutch, and French Guiana. 



" Of these colonies, the most westerly is that of British Guiana, which extends 

 from the eastern limits of Venezuela, westward to Dutch Guiana, and north of 

 Brazil to the coast on the Atlantic Ocean, its extreme limits touching the parallels 

 of 0° 41' and 8° 33' 22" north latitude, and the meridians of 56° 20^' and 61° 23' 

 24.7" west longitude. 



" British Guiana has a seaboard of about 270 miles trending in a southeasterly 

 direction, with a mean depth of about 500 miles, and is equal in extent to the com- 

 bined size of England, Scotland and Wales, the area being about 90,000 square 

 miles, most of which is densly covered with exuberant primeval forest, but in some 

 parts there are broad open flats and undulating grassy plains, or savannahs, and 

 mountainous grass-clad country. 



"Physical Features. The Alluvial Belt. — The colony may be divided broadly 

 into two low-lying belts near the coast and a hilly and mountainous hinterland 

 which constitutes by far the largest area. 



"The coast-lands are flat and for the most part swampy, being slightly de- 

 pressed below the level of ordinary spring-tides, so that sea-walls and other defences 



2 The Geology of the Goldfields of British Guiana, by J. B. Harrison, Svo, pp. i-ix, 1-320, 43 plates. London, 

 Dulau & Co. 



