10 Gi'<>ln<iy of tht Gold Fields of British Guiann. 



interspersed with forest, consisting mostly of Aeta and Trooli palms 

 {Mdiiritia flexuosa and Manicarin nanifcra), wliilst in some parts the 

 land is covered with a dense jungle. It is on this lielt that all the sugar 

 estates and by far the greater part of the cultivated areas are situated. 



Thi'. t>aiid and Clan Jlilf. — The alluvial Ijelt is succeeded by a 

 slightly elevated and undulating belt composed of sandy and clayey 

 sedentary soils, derived from the disintegration of the various country 

 I'ocks in situ, and traversed in some j^laces by sand dunes which inse 

 from 50 to about 180 feet aVjove the sea level. This second belt 

 commences at the Waini River, in the North-Western district, and 

 gradually increases in width as it extends towards the eastern boundary 

 on the Courantyne, in the vicinity of which it attains its greatest depth 

 at about 100 miles inland. Grass-covered downs occur on the banks 

 of the Berbice and Courantyne Rivers, but the greater parr of this tract 

 consists of hi'jh forest, and along the river margins and in the 1(jw 

 valleys Mora trees [Dimopliandra mora) grow plentifully. 



Till' Hint pvl and. — Beyond these belts southwards, the country rises 

 between the river vallej'S, which are in many jaarts swampy, and as it 

 approaches the sources of the larger rivers attains a height of about 

 900 feet above the sea level at the source of the Takatu, the w^estern 

 boundary, and about 400 feet above the sea at the source of the 

 Courantyne, the eastern boundary. This more elevated portion occupies 

 aiiout eleven-twelfths of the area of the colony. It is diversified 

 by numerous low hills and valleys, and contains three principal 

 mountain ranges, several irregularly distributed smaller ranges, and in 

 its southern and eastern parts many scattered, isolated mountains, none 

 of the last mentioned being more than 1,500 feet above sea-level. 



The eastern portion is almost entirely forest-clad, yet the country 

 on the western side of the colony, between the Rupununi and Ireng 

 Rivers and extending southwards from the Pakaraima Mountains to the 

 Kanuku range consists of an almost flat grass-clad plain or savannah, 

 elevated about 300 feet above sea-level, in which, in the vicinity 

 of and bordering upon the many streams by which it is watered, 

 are patches of woodlands. From tlie Kanuku Mountains southwards 

 to about six miles from the sources of the Takatu and fiom that liver 

 eastwards to a considerable distance beyond the Rupununi there is an 

 extensive and undulating elevated savannah with similar patches of 

 woods along the valleys of the many streams by which it is drained. 

 Beyond this the extreme southern part of the colony is entirely forest- 

 clad. 



PRINCIPAL topo<;kaphical features. 

 On looking at the map of the colony the most striking features in 

 it are the many lai-ge rivers by which the country is ti-aversed, and 

 the numerous tributaries and branch-streams by which it is copiously 

 watered, together forming a vast net-work of waterways over the colony 

 which, in the absence of roads, furnish a ready, if somewhat ditticult, 

 means of access to the inteiior. 



