January 2, 1896] 



NATURE 



201 



and flow to the Amazon and the Orinoko, the two great 

 river-systems being connected, as is well known, by the 

 natural canal of the Casiquiare. The more westerly 

 rivers flow, for the most part, through open savannah 

 country ; so that the water-shed of the plateau is much 

 more accessible from the Orinoko on the west and north 

 than it is from the Atlantic on the north and east. From 

 Mount Roraima south-eastward Thalwegs of the upper 

 tributaries of the Rio Branca form a political boundary to 

 near the source of the Essequibo, after which the water- 

 shed is a political boundary, the whole southern slope 

 (except a small portion of the Rio IJranco basin included 

 in British Guiana) constituting Brazilian Guiana. From 

 Roraima westward the whole area draining to the 

 Orinoko River incontestably belongs to Venezuela. 

 The present frontier disputes concern the forest-covered 

 Atlantic drainage area, which is shared by the only three 

 colonies remaining in South America — British Guiana on 

 the west, Dutch Guiana in the centre, and P'rench 

 Guiana to the east. Here most of the boundaries are 

 Thalwegs^ i.e. the central line of rivers. There is no 

 question as to Dutch Guiana, which is demarcated by 

 treaty from British Guiana by the Korentin, and from 

 French Guiana by the Maroni. But here certainty ends. 

 The French and Dutch differ as to which of the upper 

 tributaries of the Maroni should be taken as the boundary 

 between Dutch and French territory. The Brazilian 

 Government recognises the Oyapok as the French 

 boundary toward Brazil ; the French claim the Araguary, 

 the space between the two rivers which flow nearly at 

 right angles to each other being a triangle with 250 

 miles of coast as a base. The uncertainty of boundaries 

 at the east of Guiana is simpler to understand, and easier 

 to explain than that at the west. The claim of Venezuela 

 is that British Guiana is bounded by the Thalweg of the 

 Essequibo, and it is so represented on Venezuelan maps. 

 The extreme British claim, on the other hand, is that the 

 whole drainage area of the Essequibo belongs to the 

 colony, i.e. that the boundary is the main watershed of 

 the plateau as far as the Imataka range on the north, 

 which runs parallel to and very near the Orinoko. In 

 addition, there is a claim for the basins of the small 

 rivers which occupy the triangular area between the 

 drainage areas of the Orinoko and the Essequibo. If 

 the western boundary of British Guiana were to be of the 

 same type as those of the other colonies, it would require 

 to be the Thalweg of a river flowing into the Atlantic, 

 i.e. either the Essequibo, the Mazaruni, the Kuyuni (these 

 three unite to enter the sea at a common mouth), or the 

 Barama (Guiana), Barima, or Amakura. 



It is now too late to suggest the solution of the bound- 

 ary problem by geographical principles. Were it not 

 so, a very interesting argument could be held as to how 

 far the physical unity of a drainage basin is impaired by 

 the obstacles to movement along the Thalweg due to 

 cataracts interrupting navigation on the rivers, and 

 forests obstructing progress on land. It is, in fact, very 

 much easier to reach the upper basin of the Kuyuni 

 branch of the Essequibo over the savannahs from the 

 Orinoko than through the forests from the Atlantic coast. 

 All modern maps of Guiana — except the Venezuelan — 

 follow what is known as Schomburgk's boundary, either 

 in its original or in a modified form. 



In 1840 the Schomburgk line first appeared on a sketch 

 map, the topography of which was very inexact. From 

 the Amakuru River in the north it ran along the watershed 

 southwards, thus leaving the whole basin of the Barima 

 in British Guiana. It so happened that the line ran 

 nearly on the meridian of 60' \V. as far as the Kuyuni 

 River ; and when the Barima was found to rise far to the 

 west of that meridian, the line was often still drawn along 

 it, instead of following the watershed as was intended. 

 In 1886 the British Government modified the line by 



NO. 1366, VOL. 53I 



carrying it along the Kuyuni River to its source, and then 

 for a short distance along the watershed, to Roraima. 



The whole area within the Schomburgk line has been 

 taken into effective possession by the Government of 

 British Guiana so far as a tropical forest of such magni- 

 tude can be occupied. The Barima River was recently 

 explored to its source by Mr. G. G. Dixon, and the 

 account of his journey in the Geographical Journal., for 

 April 1895, gives some idea of the difficulty of forcing a 

 way through the woods. Much of the land is auriferous, 

 and the real point of the present frontier difficulty lies in 

 the value of Yuruari mines in the upper basin of the 

 Kuyuni, at present occupied politically by Venezuela,, 

 and commercially by the nondescript cosmopolitan 

 population always attracted to gold-fields. 



It is this fact that makes it hopeless to expect the 

 dispute to be settled by the geographical principles 

 which forty years ago could have easily prevented it. 

 The only alternatives are to base the rival claims on 

 actual effective possession, or on the original rights which 

 were recognised between the Dutch settlers in Guiana 

 and the Spanish colonists of the Orinoko at a time when 

 the geography of the district was practically unknown. 

 The romantic story of British enterprise in Guiana is 

 admirably told in Lucas' " Historical Geography of the 

 British Colonies," vol. ii., a work of admirable clearness^ 

 and brevity. 



D'Anville's atlas of 1772 shows practically the whole 

 of the disputed area as Dutch Guiana, but contemporary 

 and later maps are very conflicting, and all of them 

 being unofiicial are of small value as evidence. The 

 chart of Captain Edward Thompson, who took part in 

 the first capture of the " Wild Coast " from the Dutch 

 in 1 78 1, marks the Barima as "the western boundary of 

 the Dutch according to their claim," but does not suggest 

 any boundary in the interior. The rights and wrongs of 

 historic evidence will doubtless be fully investigated by 

 those responsible for a decision, and the present dispute 

 vvill probably be settled, as similar difficulties have been 

 settled before, by some judicious compromise which will 

 give both parties the inestimable benefit of a fixed and 

 definite frontier. But similar disputes will continue to- 

 arise in other places, and their solution will be protracted 

 and rendered difficult as long as unsurveyed territory is 

 claimed by rival powers, spurred on by rival concession- 

 aires and interested company promoters. 



The recent International Geographical Congress 

 decided that the time had come when all governments 

 should be urged to make a map of their possessions on 

 the uniform scale of i : 1,000,000, or about sixteen miles 

 to an inch. If the governments of all countries were 

 jointly to take this matter up, survey all unsurveyed 

 lands which they claim, and submit the uncertain 

 boundaries, which are not yet complicated by gold- 

 mines, to an International Commission of Geographers, 

 to be decided on the basis of the new map on purely 

 geographical principles, the expense would be many 

 times saved by the security which defined frontiers 

 give, and a magnificent contribution to science would' 

 be effected. Hugh Robert Mill. 



DR. JOHN RUSSELL HIND, F.R.S. 



IT is with deep regret that we announce the death of 

 Dr. J. R. Hind, whose name and whose work were 

 possibly more familiar to astronomical students of the 

 last generation than they are to those of to-day. By 

 this we do not mean to imply that Dr. Hind had out- 

 lived his reputation, but that circumstances forced him 

 to the front early in life and in connection with subjects- 

 that have long since ceased to attract or to interest. His- 

 claim to scientific reputation and remembrance will 



