294 TRINIDAD. 



that the Guanape and Aripo join to form the Caroni; half 

 a mile lower down it receives the Tumpuna. The banks of the 

 Caroni are high and steep; its course extremely winding. 

 After its junction with Tumpuna, the depth of water varies 

 from one to three feet down to the point reached by the 

 tidal flow, and from four to twelve feet below that point 

 to its outlet. The shallow mud bar at its mouth can be 

 crossed only at high tide. The mean time descending in a corial 

 from Tumpuna to the sea is eight hours; but going up, or 

 against the current, is very tedious, as the canoe is pushed 

 up by the means of a long pole. 



During the wet season, after any heavy showers, the 

 Caroni and its effluents overflow their banks, inundating the 

 country around for many hours, and leaving, on retiring, a 

 fertilising deposit. Between the left bank of the Caroni 

 and the undulating ground to the eastward, there is a 

 hollow, which serves as a recipient for the surplus water of 

 the Caroni and surface water of the surrounding country. 

 This is the Guaymare, which runs parallel to the river in 

 the direction of the Grand Savanna. When the water of the 

 Guaymare and Conupia — a stream which runs from the 

 Montserrat hills — meet together, they cover for several miles 

 the flat lands adjoining the Caroni savanna, and have more 

 than once already put to a severe test the solidity of the 

 railway between the Caroni and Conupia stations. Population 

 in 1881, 1,326; in 1871, 668. 



The Cbaguanas and Lower Caroni wards may be said 

 to be entirely level, a great part of their extent being occupied 

 by what is called the Grand Savanna, and an extensive 

 mangrove swamp, which forms, as it were, the Delta of the 

 Caroni. The eastern part of the Lower Caroni ward is under 

 cultivation, cacao and sugar being the staple productions. 

 The estates generally are situated on or near the banks of 

 the Caroni. The soil is partly light and partly clayey, and tl 

 district rather damp. Presently nearly the whole produce wi 

 be conveyed to town by railway. There are, in Chaguanas, 

 both sides of the river Capparo, a fine cacao estate and sevei 

 sugar plantations. 



A convict depot has been formed in this ward for some years 

 past, at the entrance of the extensive forest extending to 



