GENERAI FIELD OF WORK ^ 



would cover the area of four- tilths of oiir researches. And 

 now at the end of oiu' stay, as we look back over the results 

 of this new experiment in tropical scientific work, we realize 

 that with all our etforts we have made only the merest be- 

 ginning, and that many men could spend their lives in prof- 

 itable research at this spot. 



Kalacoon House faces the iunction of tliree mio:ht\- 

 rivers. Innulreds of miles from their soiu^ces in the hitrhlamls 

 of Venezuela and Brazil: at our back door begins a jungle 

 throuofh which one miijht wander as far as San Francisco 

 from Xtw York without meeting a human beinj?. Our 

 provinc^e in general is a colony less in size than Colorado, 

 and oiu- chosen plot for research is of equal area with Cen- 

 tral Park in New York City. 



The ireoloirv of Bartica district is not of sfreat interest. 

 Indeed, looking at the panorama encircling Kalacoon House, 

 one is unconscious of any evidence of earthly inorganic 

 structure: vegetation fills the landscape. We have passed 

 the low. marshv alluvial coastal zone, and have not vet 

 reached the mountainous hinterland. Here we have rolling 

 hills covered with dense hiofh iiuiirle. trisected bv the navi- 

 gable waters of the tliree great rivers, iuid veined with many 

 small creeks. AMien we come to examine the rocks which 

 here and there protrude through the foliage or become visible 

 at low water, we find that the general aspect of the skeleton 

 of the country is not unlike that around Xew York City. 



At low tide, bare rocks are visible ahnost in mid-stream, 

 stretching directly across the bottom and several miles up 

 the river, where this great belt of grey granite here and 

 there breaks through the evergreen mass of vegetation. 

 Tliis is one of the most recent of the basal igneous rocks ot 

 the colonv. Xo fossils are found anvwhere. even in the 

 sandstone farther down river. The rocky islets oif Bartica 

 are a dark hornblende-schist. This completes the tale of 

 the stone, except for an interesting vein of quartz extending 

 across a tinv stream near Kalacoon, wliich has been foimd 



