CHAPTER V. 

 STEAMER AND LAUNCH TO HOORIE CREEK. 



WHEN we left New York we had planned to go up the 

 Demerara River from Georgetown and spend our time 

 on the Essequibo and Potaro. We had the good fortune, 

 however, to take the same steamer with Mr. and Mrs. Gaylord 

 Wilshire who were paying their annual visit to their two 

 large gold concessions. The previous year they had travelled 

 over many of the larger rivers and when we heard their glow- 

 ing accounts of the northern and western wilderness com- 

 pared to the rather thinned out " bush " and more travelled 

 route of the Demarara, and were asked to join their party in 

 going first to the Hoorie Mine in the northwest and then to 

 the Aremu Mine in central Guiana, we hesitated not a moment. 



We left the Georgetown stelling, or wharf, at noon on 

 March 2d, on the little steamer " Mazaruni " for the long 

 coastwise trip to Morawhanna. Leaving the harbor flock 

 of Laughing Gulls 16 behind, we steered straight out to sea 

 for several hours before turning to the northwest. The 

 water all along the coast is very shallow and is so filled 

 with sediment that even in a heavy gale the waves break 

 but little. We passed the mouth of the Essequibo, thirty- 

 five miles in width, with the two great islands, Wakenaam 

 and Leguan, fairly in the centre of the mouth. The night 

 was rough and windy and the little tub rolled wildly. 



At five o'clock next morning we were steaming slowly 

 between two walls of green which brought vividly to mind 

 our Venezuelan trip of last year. A few other plants were 

 intermingled with the mangroves, but the solid ranks of the 



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