Hidden Wealth in British Guiana 



Hv WILLI A M J. L A VA U H L. .1 \i. 



ON the iioitlu'rii coast of South 

 AiiuM-ica lies ]?ritisli (iuiaiia, 

 toj)ographieally varied by rivers, 

 juiioles, niountains, and savannahs, each of 

 which may some day furnish the world with 

 jiroducts of much vahu\ The rivers are 

 cai>able of turning great electrical dynamos; 

 the jungles contain vast quantities of lum- 

 ber, and both jungles and mountains con- 

 tain aluminum, to say nothing of other 

 mineral probabilities; the savannahs can be 

 converted into grazing lands for cattle, while 

 the opening up of the railroad from Brazil 

 to Greorgetown and the dredging of the har- 

 bor of Georgetown, puts the colony into 

 commercial relations with the outside world. 

 Gold and diamonds are now being found in 

 secluded places in British Guiana. Much 

 gold has already been taken, and in the days 

 to come valuable diamond deposits may be 

 discovered. 



The Mazaruui River rises in the central 

 part of the colony, flows northwest around 

 the Merume Mountains and then back 

 northeast, emjitying into the Essequibo at 

 Bartica — where Kalacoon, the biological sta- 

 tion of the New York Zoological Society, is 

 located. This river affords the principal 



lii'ld lor diamond exploitation. The region, 

 which lies (it'ty miles from Bartica and ex- 

 tends one hundred miles farther into the in- 

 terior, has Ix'eii scantily prospected by a 

 group of harum-scarum men locally termed 

 "pork-knockers." Th(\y know no system in 

 their ])rospecting, but move about here and 

 there in the wake of such of their group as 

 chance to make a discovery of any value. 



As yet few de])osits of any size have been 

 located; t]H> <liamond-bearing gravel does 

 not seem to run in mother lodes, but is scat- 

 tered over the country in potholes. Only 

 one mine has been established, and this, both 

 because of the nature of the place and the 

 primitive methods ein]>loyed, has not proved 

 a success. 



Nevertheless, there is shipped to England 

 each year a quantity of diamonds which are 

 the direct result of the labors of these pork- 

 knockers. The men go into the bush in small 

 groups or alone, and scrape the gravel from 

 the shallow creek beds, or perhaps dig one 

 or two feet into the gravel banks of the for- 

 ests if it seems profitable. They are a 

 happy-go-lucky lot of men, of either Dutch 

 and Indian or Negro lineage. They gather 

 together at Bartica, the outermost point of 





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Not only is traveling up the rapids of tlie Mazaruni River very difficult, but the climate is humid, 

 and malaria and black water fevers tax the endurance of prospectors and laborers. Provision boats 

 (these are made of heavy greenheart wood) must bs unloaded before they can be drawn through the 

 rapids, while the provisions are carried around the rapids on land. Such scenes as this are typical of 

 the jungle interiors almost anywhere in the Mazaruni District of British Guiana during the dry 

 season 



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