310 TRINIDAD. 



good quality. Nearly all the mills are driven by steam-engines ; 

 several sugar estates have, however, already been abandoned in 

 Carapichaima and Savanetta, since emancipation. 



The following water-courses drain these wards, viz., the 

 Hondo, Caparo, Arona, and Couva, which separates Couva from 

 Savanetta. This latter, the largest river of the whole district, 

 has for its main tributary the Montserrat ravine, which flows 

 from the adjoining mountains, and unites with the Couva. There 

 are, also, several natural savannahs in these wards, one on the 

 right bank of the river Couva, near its mouth ; another on its left 

 bank, near the Brechin castle estate ; and a third, higher up. 

 The wards of Carapichaima, Couva, and Savanetta abound in good 

 hard- wood and other timber poui, balata, carapa, cedar, copaiba, 

 &c. Several villages have been formed there since emancipation. 

 The means of communication are very imperfect, and produce can 

 be shipped only at high water. The Royal road from Port-of- 

 Spain to San Fernando, traverses these wards ; and from it branch 

 off several ward-roads. Carapichaima, Couva, and Savanetta form, 

 together, the Anglican parishes of St. Andrew and St. Philip, and 

 the catholic parish of Couva. 



The county of Caroni is generally level, and even flat. The 

 quality of the soil is very various. It is, in general, a light sandy 

 loam, resting on a substratum of clay : as a whole, it is not con- 

 sidered as very rich, except towards the interior, where the land is 

 waving. The vegas or river-hollows are, also, of excellent 

 quality. Sugar, cacao, and provisions are pretty generally culti- 

 vated, and the sugar is of fine sample. There are, perhaps, more 

 Spanish families of mixed blood in this county than in any other : 

 it is, however, thinly inhabited. 



Population in 1851, 7,107 inhabitants males, 4,187 ; females, 

 2,920. Church of England, 2,153 ; Catholics, 3,100. 



