BRITISH GUIANA 



943 



BRITISH GUIANA 



tion. Upon the outbreak of the War of the 

 Nations, however, the board of governors, 

 feeling that it would be shortsighted and un- 

 patriotic to commit the public to a large ex- 

 penditure and heavy fixed charges when every 

 dollar in the country might be required in the 

 struggle, decided to postpone the completion 

 of the science building and to avoid large 

 expenditures of every kind. In the meantime, 

 by vote of the legislature, sufficient funds were 

 provided to allow, the university to begin its 

 work in temporary quarters and to take over 

 the work of the McGill University of British 

 Columbia, which had been giving university 

 instruction since 1906. The transfer of the 

 student body from the old institution, which 

 suspended operations in 1915, to the new uni- 

 versity, made it possible for the latter to grad- 

 uate a class in the first year of its existence. 



BRITISH GUIANA, geah'na, a colony of 

 Northern South America, whose area, 90,277 

 square miles, is greater than the combined 

 area of its neighbors, Dutch Guiana and French 

 Guiana (which see). To the north of it is 

 the At 1 antic 

 Ocean ; to the 

 east, Dutch Gui- 

 ana ; to the south, 

 Brazil, and to 

 the west, Vene- 

 zuela. It lies be- 

 tween 2 and 8 

 north of the 

 equator. With an 

 area greater than 

 that of Minne- 

 sota, it had by 

 the census of 1911 

 . but 296,041 in- 

 habitants, or lit- 

 tle, more than 

 one-tenth as 



many as Minne- Guiana "wittTThe entire con- 

 sota, but a cen- tinent - 



sus in Guiana is apt to be misleading. The 

 interior parts of the country have never been 

 explored, and the native savages who live 

 there have never been numbered. It is esti- 

 mated, however, that there are not more than 

 10,000 or 15,000 of them. 



The Land. British Guiana is divided into 

 three settlements, Essequibo, Demerara and 

 Berbice. In general, the surface is a plateau, 

 higher toward the northern part, and so far 

 as is known the highest mountain is the peak 

 Roraima, on the western boundary. This is 



LOCATION MAP 

 The small black area com- 

 pares the size of British 



a flat-topped mountain, almost inaccessible, 

 which rises to a height of 8,600 feet. The 

 longest river in Guiana, the Essequibo, is in 

 this British colony, as is also the Berbice, while 

 the Corentyn forms the boundary between it 

 and Dutch Guiana. These rivers are of no 

 great importance for navigation, as falls and 

 rapids interrupt their courses. 



The climate is hot, with an excess of mois- 

 ture, and like practically all cpuntries where 

 such conditions occur British Guiana is un- 

 healthful for Europeans, of whom there are 

 fewer than 5,000. Most of the inhabitants 

 live in the coast region, the only part that 

 has been put under cultivation. 



Resources. As in most tropical countries 

 with heavy rainfall, the forest growth of Brit- 

 ish Guiana is very heavy, and valuable woods 

 abound. Most of the forest area is as yet 

 unexplored, however, and the mineral resources 

 are almost equally undeveloped. Some gold 

 is found in the river bottoms, and a few dia- 

 monds have been mined in the interior. 



But the chief wealth of the country lies in 

 its agricultural possibilities. The soil which 

 has been cultivated in the coast region is very 

 rich, and sugar, rice, sea-island cotton and cof- 

 fee are grown in considerable quantities. Much 



COMPARATIVE AREAS 



British Guiana is nearly 7,000 square miles 

 larger than the North American state of Idaho. 



of the work is done by East Indian and Chi- 

 nese laborers, called coolies. Each year Brit- 

 ish Guiana exports about $10,000,000 worth of 



