Notes on Jungle and Other Wild Life. 163 



Mrs. Lestrade says that until her trip in the Spring of 

 1920, no American woman had ever seen the Falls, and that it 

 had not been visited by more than a hundred white men. and at 

 tlie most by ten white women. These figures have not been 

 much increased to the present date. 



The great fall (four times as high as Niagara) is on the 

 Potaro River, a branch of the Essequibo, about 200 miles in the 

 interior of British Guiana and less than five degrees from the 

 equator. The only feasible plan for reaching it is by means of 

 rest houses and other provisions made by the firm of Sprostons, 

 Limited, who control most of the transportation facilities. I 

 wish I had space and time to describe the journey by forest, 

 mountain and river; as it is, you will find full accounts in the 

 " literature " fvumished by Sprostons as well as by the Geo- 

 graphic Magazine and by recent work on the colony. I will 

 only say that any m.an (or woman) in good health and reasonable 

 vigour may easily undertake the four 7-walks because not only 

 are the forest trails well kept, but the mountain paths are shaded 

 all the way by the evergreen jungle. It is always cool in the 

 depths of the tropical bush. As for mosquitos, dangerous 

 snakes, jaguars, hostile Indians — well, there are not and 

 probably never were any ! An ordinary expedition occupies 

 less than a fortnight, and five of us made the journey at a cost 

 of less than $200 each; not bad when one remembers that after 

 we left the last portage, to which we were brought by a steam 

 launch, our human outfit included fourteen (mostly Indians) 

 paddlers, bearers and other servants. All our provisions, 

 sleeping material, etc., had to be carried on the backs of bearers 

 around several cataracts, and several miles over a mountain 

 trail to reach the elevated plateau whence the Potaro plunges 

 into the Kaietur gorge. 



My four compagnons de voyage were all — whatever else 

 Uiey may have been in life — sincere and eager worshippers at 

 Nature's o])en slirine," and I think we all profited much from 

 the discussions prompted by the flora and fauna seen by the 

 wav. The names of my travel friends were Dr. Harold 

 ("\^or(.\. of ( )malia, Xeb., Major Chester Davis, U.S. Consul for 

 -ritish (juiana. Major F. C. Shorey, of Montreal, and Mr. E. 

 C Freeland, Chemist to Plantation Uitvlugt, one of the largest 

 sugar estates in the colony. 



