QUATARO. 335 



Mayaro, Nariva, and Manzanilla are deprived. The lower section 

 is highly undulating, and changes to hilly towards the interior. I 

 have already mentioned the two rivers which discharge their waters 

 into the Bay of Guayaguayare, viz., Lizard and Pilot rivers : they 

 are tidal streams, with mangroves at their outlets. A few diminu- 

 tive brooks course through the undulating ground of Mayaro, and 

 owing to their being regularly dyked by the sand thrown up by 

 the surf, expand at their mouths into small lagoons ; of these, 

 only one is worth notice the Lagon-doux. 



I must now say a few words of the Guataro or Ortoire. My 

 information is drawn partly from Captain Columbine's survey, and, 

 otherwise, from reliable private sources. The Guataro has its 

 mouth to the northward of Point Radix ; after rounding which 

 point it runs for some miles in the rear of Mayaro, and then takes 

 a W.N.W. direction. Its course winds in the most eccentric man- 

 ner, particularly towards its mouth, where the country is nearly a 

 plain. Its banks are low, and the bed muddy ; but the former 

 rise proportionably with the elevation of the adjacent lands. The 

 Guataro is navigable, for large canoes, eighteen miles. Captain 

 Columbine surveyed it for twelve miles upwards, and, at that dis- 

 tance, found it thirty feet wide, and eighteen deep. It does not 

 seem that the Guataro receives any considerable affluent from the 

 south; the great body of its waters descend from the central 

 range, between Tamana and Montserrat, its tributaries from that 

 direction being the Ma'iroa, Bell's Creek, the Poui, Cunapure, 

 and Caranache. Moras grow abundantly in the low lands, and, 

 higher up, cedars, robles, and copaiba trees. Should this part of 

 the island ever become settled, a village might be advantageously 

 formed at the head of the river navigation, and a tram-road laid 

 down from that point either to La Brea or to Pointe-a-pierres. Or, 

 again, the produce might be carried down to the landing-place of 

 Mayaro, since a distance of only 1,270 yards, across the Mayaro 

 estate, separates the river Guataro from the beach ; a tram-road 

 could then be laid in junction between the river and the sea, 

 thereby avoiding the difficulties of entering the Guataro, and the 

 dangers of a navigation to the northward of Point Radix. 



Excepting the belt along the shore, the entire county of 

 Mayaro is crown property ; its surface, to all appearance, is undu- 

 lating, rising into hillocks towards the S. and S.E. It is said 

 to be rugged, and everywhere intersected by deep ravines to 



