NATURAL AREAS AND REGIONS 



661 





Guianas, Venezuela and Colombia, ex- 

 cept for the great advantage of a stable 

 British Government at one's back. 



Georgetown, a city of 60,000, is the 

 capital of British Guiana and is on the 

 coast. It is reached in two weeks from 

 New York by the excellent steamers 

 of the Furness, Withy Line. There 

 are comfortable hotels, rail and auto- 

 mobile roads along the coast, but inland, 

 almost the whole country is unexplored 

 scientifically, and it is possible to 

 penetrate into the interior only by the 

 rivers and waterways, and occasional 

 Indian trails. On the coast the majority 

 of the inhabitants are either negroes or 

 East Indian coolies. In the interior 

 are scattered Indian tribes, and equally 

 isolated hamlets of bovianders of mixed 

 blood dutch, Indian and negro. The 

 Indians and negroes are the most reliable 

 workers and the former make excellent 

 hunters but poor collectors. 



Under the auspices of the New York 

 Zoological Society I have maintained a 

 Tropical Research Station for seven 

 years at Kartabo at the point of juncture 

 of the Mazaruni and Cuyuni Rivers 45 

 mi. from Georgetown. Here 32 months 

 have been spent, and research carried 

 on by 28 workers from England, France 

 and the United States and 160 contri- 

 butions have been published, including 

 four bound volumes. 



The Station is in the heart of the 

 tropical rain-forest, with large swamps 

 near by, and is at an elevation of only 

 50 ft., yet there has never been any case 

 of malaria or other fevers or illness, nor 

 serious bites from serpents or other 

 creatures. The staff sleep in tents with 

 flaps wide open and no mosquito nets, 

 as these insects are unknown. No 

 siestas are taken and the amount of 

 work and working hours show an in- 

 crease over those in the north. At the 

 end of a ten months' season, neither 

 men nor women show any ill effects 

 whatever of continuous hard work, 

 although in close proximity to the 

 equator. 



Realizing the value of concentrated 

 effort in a limited field, an area of one 



quarter of a square mile has been marked 

 out and studied, with results which 

 reveal the unbelievable richness of 

 tropical life. These results are now 

 being published in Zoologica, the scien- 

 tific publication of the New York Zo- 

 ological Society. 



Life History notes have been made 

 on 75 species of mammals, including all 

 the important forms of northern South 

 America. Over 450 species of birds 

 inhabit the district, 108 species of 

 reptiles and amphibians, and over 130 

 forms of fish. This latter figure rep- 

 resents one-third of the whole fish 

 fauna of the Colony, and was obtained 

 along only a short 200 yards of river. 



The coastal and river swamps may be 

 easily studied from Georgetown as a 

 base. For inland work on the biota of 

 the coastal region, Kartabo, the site 

 of the Tropical Research Station, is 

 strongly recommended and may be 

 reached quickly and easily from George- 

 town. For study of the sand and clay 

 region, a base may be made at Rockstone 

 on the Essequibo river (one day from 

 Georgetown) or at Tumatumari on the 

 Potaro (two days from Georgetown), 

 at both of which excellent accommoda- 

 tions are available in rest-houses main- 

 tained by Sprostons, Ltd., of George- 

 town, who also provide regular trans- 

 portation and mail service. From all 

 other places, an expedition is practically 

 necessary, in the equipment of which 

 Sprostons, Ltd., will be found invalu- 

 able. The nearest savannas are on the 

 cattle-trail, 20 to 50 mi. southeast of 

 Wismar (one day from Georgetown by 

 steamer), but the typical savanna biota 

 is best seen on the upper Essequibo or 

 Rupununi rivers (about 15 days by 

 boat) . The plateau and mountain vege- 

 tation are reached with comparative 

 ease, but at considerable expense, along 

 the Potaro river above Kaieteur Falls 

 (5 days from Georgetown), with the 

 assistance of Sprostons, but the Roraima 

 district with its rich endemism is to be 

 attained only by an expensive expedi- 

 tion requiring the packing overland of 

 all supplies. 



