CHAPTER VIII. 



THE WATER TRAIL FROM GEORGETOWN TO 

 AREMU. 



WE allowed ourselves only forty-eight hours in George- 

 town to unpack our specimens and prepare for our 

 second expedition into the "bush." This time we were 

 to leave the coast and strike straight inland, passing up the 

 Essequibo River to Bartica, thence via the Mazaruni and 

 Cuyuni to the Aremu and the Little Aremu rivers. Near 

 the head-waters of this last stream was the gold mine which 

 marked our journey's end, deep within the wilderness. 



On the morning of March 23d, we left Georgetown on one 

 of Sproston's steamers en route for Bartica. A pair of Gray- 

 breasted Martins 122 accompanied us, and we found that they 

 were nesting in an angle between two beams of the main 

 deck covering. Young birds were in the nest, so the Martins 

 must have accompanied the steamer on many of the alternate 

 day trips between Georgetown and Bartica. Not only this 

 but the river *boat exchanges routes every two weeks with 

 her sister steamer which is plying on the outside northwest 

 route to Morawhanna, the fortnightly change from fresh to 

 salt water doing away with all need for keel cleaning. So 

 these birds had started their nest while the boat was making 

 her sea trips. During much of the time we were on the boats 

 the birds kept flying out to each side over the water in pur- 

 suit of insects for their brood. They sometimes went far 

 ahead or out of sight a half mile to shore. 



After entering the wide estuary mouth of the Essequibo 

 we passed Leguan and Hog islands, each over ten miles in 



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