LIFE IN THE GUIANA WILDS 187 



current when approaching the landing, and the launch, 

 together with its thirty or more occupants, was swept over 

 the falls and lost. Accidents such as this have caused the 

 government to make wise and stringent rules regulating 

 navigation on all streams, and applying to all craft, even 

 canoes, containing passengers other than the owner; as a 

 result accidents are now of rare occurrence. 



One day's time is required to reach Potaro Landing, the 

 end of launch navigation, from Tumatumari. Tourists who 

 visit the justly famous Kaieteur Falls proceed overland 

 from this point, a distance of seven miles, and then embark 

 in canoes manned by full-blooded Patamona Indians. 

 There are other but shorter portages farther up the river, 

 though as a whole the journey is not difficult and well 

 worth making. 



The appeal of Potaro Landing was irresistible to us, so 

 we decided to remain a week or two. Unfortunately, 

 Sproston's maintains no rest-house here, as touring-parties 

 continue to Kangaruma, at the other end of the portage, 

 to spend the night. However, we found a good-natured 

 Chinaman, who operates a store in the one lonely building 

 at the landing, and he permitted us to use half of his barn; 

 he had to remove his horses in order to supply even these 

 limited quarters. 



A good cart-road leads through the forest a distance of 

 eighteen miles to the mining country on Minnehaha Creek, 

 and many negro miners passed along this way each day; 

 the greater part of them are what is locally known as "pork- 

 knockers," because they live largely on salt pork and knock 

 about from one place to another. They secure a small 

 stake from the government with which to buy a pick and 

 shovel, and then go into the interior to prospect. If, as 

 frequently occurs, they strike a rich pocket, or find a nugget 

 of considerable size, they immediately drop their imple- 

 ments and rush back to Georgetown to spend their newly 

 acquired wealth. Carriages are engaged by the day, ser- 

 vants employed, and clothes of a bright and flashy nature 



