30 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



by water; and when you come to the high lands, 

 you may make your way through the forest on 

 foot, or continue your route on the river. 



After passing the third island in the river 

 Demerara, there are few plantations to be seen, 

 and those not joining on to one another, but sepa- 

 rated by large tracts of wood. 



The Loo is the last where the Sugar-cane is 

 growing. The greater part of its negroes have 

 just been ordered to another estate ; and ere a few 

 months shall have elapsed all signs of cultivation 

 will be lost in underwood. 



Higher up stand the sugar-works of Amelia's 

 Waard, solitary and abandoned! and after pass- 

 ing these there is not a ruin to inform the trav- 

 eller that either coffee or sugar have ever been 

 cultivated. 



From Amelia's Waard an unbroken range of 

 forest covers each bank of the river, saving here 

 and there where a hut discovers itself, inhabited 

 by free people of colour, with a rood or two of 

 bared ground about it ; or where the wood-cutter 

 has erected himself a dwelling, and cleared a few 

 acres for pasturage. Sometimes you see level 

 ground on each side of you for two or three hours 

 at a stretch; at other times a gently sloping hill 

 presents itself ; and often, on turning a point, the 

 eye is pleased with the contrast of an almost per- 

 pendicular height jutting into the water. The 

 trees put you in mind of an eternal spring, with 

 summer and autumn kindly blended into it. 



Here you may see a sloping extent of noble 

 trees, whose foliage displays a charming variety 

 of every shade, from the lightest to the darkest 



