BRITISH GUIAISTA AND BRAZIL SMITH 329 



quickly. He is usually a good axman, a fair hunter and boatman, 

 and is very handy at constructing huts and camp furniture from 

 local materials. The majority are intelligent, and have a very keen 

 perception and a sense of humor. A few of them who had come into 

 contact with mission schools could read and write a little, and only 

 one or two could not understand pidgin English, the lingua franca 

 of the colony. No Indian willingly accepts the responsibility of 

 leadership or authority over his fellows; they prefer to work as a 

 soviet, none giving orders but each doing his particular job in mutual 

 but silent agreement. 



The Negro has an entirely different character. His strength enables 

 him to carry the heavy load, but he is of childish mentality, quick 

 of temper, excitable, and delights in nothing better than making 

 a great noise about nothing. Some were good axmen and watermen, 

 but the majority were not at all at home in the bush and grumbled 

 continually. There were, however, notable exceptions. A few drawn 

 from the independent farmer class were splendid all-around men and 

 better than any Indian. Blacks and Indians worked together more 

 or less in harmony, but usually lived in separate tents by choice. 

 Such different characters are not belied by physical appearances. 

 The black's negroid countenance and curly hair are in striking con- 

 trast to the straight hair and Mongolian features of the Indian. The 

 Indian has rather finely shaped feet and ankles, but the black stands 

 splayed and firm on large, shapeless pads of gristle. 



At a preliminary conference the Brazilian, Dutch, and British 

 sections arranged to rendezvous at the eastern tri junction of the 

 Brazil-Guiana boundary as soon as possible after the close of the 

 wet season in August. The Dutch started upriver in a fleet of canoes 

 propelled by paddlers in July. The British followed in August by 

 motorboat. 



A camp was established at the head of deep-water navigation at 

 Hepsiba, 50 miles from the coast. It soon became apparent that the 

 most difficult and expensive part of the commission was going to be 

 the transportation on the line of communication — the movement of 

 personnel and stores from the coast to the boundary. 



From a geologic viewpoint the rivers of British Guiana are not 

 rivers at all, but simply large streams flowing through the bush in 

 shallow rock and sand channels. There are no river valleys proper, 

 the banks of these channels being only a few feet high and the to- 

 pography along either side indistinguishable from that of anywhere 

 else. The country is intersected by a series of parallel out-cropping 

 rock reefs running east and west, over which the rivers flow in swift 

 rapids. 



