Of GUIANA. SS 



have ten or twelve feet water with the utmofl uniformity, and 

 {landing in with the month of the river open, you neither 

 deepen nor fliallow till you enter it, when you find two, three, 

 foiir or five fathom, and it continues to average that depth for 

 a long way, fo that any veffel which can enter, may, for draught 

 of water, proceed iTp the river for i oo miles or more. 



The mouth of the Effequebo, from the fand-hills and rocks 

 being very near it, is exceedingly different. Three large iflands 

 prefent themfelves in a breaft, and divide its entrance into four 

 channels. The length of thefe iflands is with the current, fouth 

 and north ; and from the tall or north end of each of them, as alfo 

 from the banks of the main on either fide, run out fand-banks to a 

 good diftance. They are perfe<flly firm, quick in very few fpots,. 

 and the body of them is above the level of low water. On the 

 outfide of them you have the continuation of the mud-banks and 

 fhallow water as above, only that the entranee of thefe channels is ■ 

 flill fhallower than that of the Demerary. The ftreafti of this river 

 runs very brown and muddy, and the fea is ftained with it for 

 fome leagues ofi^. A flranger natvirally imputes this to the 

 wafliings of a large flat country, or the fl:irring up of the 

 muddy bottom by the tides. The latter may in part be a-, 

 caufe, though I believe it contributes to it but very little, and 

 the former, in a fl:ate of uncultivation, none at all. On afcend- 

 ing forty miles or fo, you find the water clear again, or rather 

 of a darkiih hue, and fo it continues above that. I was at firft 

 at a lofs how to account for this, but, from a number of cir- 

 cumftances, was foon led to conclude, that the thicknefs, and 

 light brown colour of the water near the mouth of the river 

 and on the coaft, were almofl; entirely the eiFe<ft of cultivation. 

 Numberlefs ditches and canals have been opened by the inhabi- 

 tants, which are receiving or difcharging water «very tide, and 

 each particular piece on a plantation is every way interfered 

 with open little drains, which communicate with thefe ditches. . 

 In digging and hoeing this clayey foil, much of it is fufpended. 



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