8 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



and gives access during the rainy seasons to the elevated grass-clad plains, or 

 savannahs, on which at the present time a large number of cattle are being raised. 

 During the height of the dry seasons the river becomes very shallow, its course 

 being impeded by many sandbanks and rapids, and during this time it can only 

 be ascended with great difficulty and much loss of time, or rather not at all. Its 

 many inlets and large lake-like ponds on both banks form a feature common also 

 to the upper parts of the Berbice River. Its largest tributary is the Rewa, or 

 Illiwa, which is itself joined by the Quitaro, and both flow through country covered 

 with high forests." 



[p. 14.] "The Demerara River, although commercially the most important and 

 best known of all the rivers in the colony, is, compared with some of those already 

 described, a small one. As the greater depth at the bar admits of large vessels 

 entering this river with more security and ease than is the case with any of the 

 other rivers in the colony, Georgetown, the capital and principal port of the colony, 

 has been established on its east bank at its mouth, which is there three-quarters 

 of a mile wide, and furnishes a safe harbor for the many steamers and sailing vessels 

 which frequent the port. The Demerara River takes its rise in the small mountain- 

 range called the Maccari, which is really an offshoot of the great Pakaraima range. 

 It has a generally northerly course, and flows between the Essequibo and the Berbice 

 Rivers. The river is navigable for steamers for nearly eighty miles upwards from 

 its mouth, and beyond this for launches for about twenty-four miles further up, 

 as far as the Malali Rapids, where the influence of the tide ceases. Above Malali 

 the river is again navigable for launches as far as Kanaimapoo, above which are 

 the Kumaparu Rapids, where the Demerara River approaches nearest in its course 

 to the Essequibo River. The first great cataract on this river is situated a short 

 distance above Kamaparu, in latitude 5° 18' north, and is known as the Oruru- 

 Malali, or Great Falls. Beyond Oruru-Malali the river is sluggish, and is again 

 navigable for boats as far as the Cannister Cataracts, where it divides into two 

 streams. Its forest-clad banks are flat as far up as the second or sand and clay belt, 

 where the sand hills occur and form the first high land." 



"Mountain Ranges. — One of the most prominent features of the country is the 

 great central mass of mostly flat-topped mountains, known as the Pakaraima group 

 or chain, which occupies the most western [p. 15] portion of the colony, and stretches 

 southward from the Cuyuni River to within thirty miles above the mouth of the 

 Ireng River, and eastward to the Essequibo River right across the colony as far 

 as the Courantyne River." 



"The bulk of these mountains forms a successive series of terraces and broad, 



