2$o M THE GUIANA FOREST. 



was obliterated, and is now entirely gone, leaving 

 only what is called Lusignan Point to indicate its 

 former site. Whether this little headland is on the 

 exact spot where the coast pilot once recognised 

 Courabanna Point is doubtful, as these headlands 

 are continually changing in the struggle between 

 wave and courida, but although perhaps the pilot 

 might dispute its identity, it is as much the same 

 as any other part of the coast can be after such 

 work has been going on for a century, or even fifty 

 years. 



How important these changes are will be under- 

 stood when we state that the twenty miles of coast 

 between the Demerara River and the Mahaica 

 Creek was once well known under the name of the 

 Courabanna District. But it could easily happen 

 that most important issues might depend on the 

 existence or non-existence of such a creek. When 

 the colony of Berbice was settled, the boundary 

 line with Surinam was fixed at the Devil's Creek, 

 about midway between the Berbice and Corentyne 

 Rivers. That creek has gone the same way as the 

 Courabanna, and it would be very difficult to 

 indicate its mouth, much more its channel, at the 

 present day. Fortunately, however, the Governor 

 of Berbice in 1799, when both colonies were in 

 possession of Great Britain, made an arrangement 



