42 NATURAL HISTORY 



and W. and dividing Guiana from the inland parts of SovTth 

 America, which form the banks of the Amazons and its nu- 

 merous branches. 



Coaji. — No coaft can be more eafy to make than that of Gui- 

 ana. The changed colour of the water indicates foundings 

 long before you make the land, and you may riui on in feven 

 fathoms before you can difcover it from the deck. The bottom 

 is at that dillance a foft mud. All along the coaft near Deme- 

 rary, you have only abovit two fathom at a good league from 

 the Ihore ; to leeward of Effequebo, it deepens ftill more gra- 

 dvially. In ftanding off or on five or fix miles, you will hardly 

 deepen or fliallow the water as many feet. When a high fea 

 fets in upon fuch a coaft, it is eafy to conceive, that at a very 

 confiderable diftance from the land it muft be affected by the 

 botton^. The interval betwixt wave and wave becomes more 

 diftincft. As they roll on in fucceflion, the lower part is re- 

 tarded, the upper furface accelerated, each billow of courfe be- 

 comes fteeper and more abrupt, till at laft it gradvially ends in 

 a breaker, when it has come to the depth of only a few feet. 

 Thefe rollers, as they are called, are the dread of feamen, efpe- 

 cially betwixt Eflequebo and Pomeroon, where the water is 

 fliallow, and the bearing of the coaft very much north and 

 fouth, expofes it fully to the adlion of the trade-winds. In fmall 

 craft, thofe acquainted with the navigation do not hefitate to 

 run along the coaft, even among the rollers themfelves ; but 

 veflels drawing from eight to twelve feet water, efpecially if 

 the fwell be heavy and it falls calm, can hardly get off. If an- 

 chor and cables fail, they drift on till they are faft in the mud, 

 and there they will continue, fomecimes for weeks together, be- 

 fore they go to pieces. The fea-water becomes exceedingly 

 thick and muddy within a few leagues from the coaft of De- 

 merary, as much or more fo than the Thames is at London. 

 A llranger would naturally take tins for the difcharge of large 



flooded 



