Information respecting Scientific Travellers. 197 



&c. I saw trees of this description, of which the trunks might have 

 measured seventy feet before they branched off. 



The cedar and other forest trees, many of them of the most gi- 

 gantic dimensions, were seen in great numbers during the course of 

 this daj'^'s journey, besides numerous hya-hj'a trees. The hya-hya 

 is the remarkable tree which yields by incision a milky fluid that 

 forms a good substitute for cow's milk. The Indian, to whom it is 

 inexplicable how man can make use of milk after having been weaned 

 from the maternal breast, does not attach any value to this fluid as 

 an article of food, but the younger community prepare from it balls 

 of caoutchouc. 



Our path led over hillocks from fifty to sixty feet high, extending 

 in longitudinal ridges : their intermediate valleys generally formed 

 swamps, on crossing which we frequently sunk to our girths in mud 

 and water. After four hours' march we crossed the Caruawa, here 

 a mere rivulet ; and arrived in the afternoon at a small settlement 

 consisting of two houses inhabited by Waikas. 



The neatness and order of the provision-fields around these set- 

 tlements showed that the Indian who presided over them was distin- 

 guished from the generality of his brethren. Paths led through the 

 fields ; the yams were trailed against poles ; lime and orange trees, 

 so seldom to be met with amongst the Indians, increased the favour- 

 able idea I had of the inhabitants. We found only one Indian and 

 some females at home ; the rest, with their chieftain, were gone to 

 work for a time at a wood-cutting establishment on the river Po- 

 meroon with a view to earn money to procure those articles which 

 have become almost necessaries of life with them, namely, wearing 

 apparel, implements for cultivating their fields, guns, powder and 

 shot. 



Leaving Paripu \\c continued our march ; and in the afternoon of 

 the same day arrived at another large settlement, judging at least 

 from the number of the huts. Here also the male inhabitants were 

 absent, having gone to work at the Pomeroon. 



We departed from Cariacu on the 11th of July. The Barama re- 

 sembles much the Upper Barima ; its banks are clothed with a simi- 

 lar vegetation, and it is equally serpentine in its course. I noticed 

 a good deal of potter's clay, used by the Caribisi for the manufacture 

 of pottery, which for its durability is highly esteemed by the colo- 

 nists. This clay has a grayish colour, and is mixed with the loose 

 materials of decomposing granite. 



The rivulet Nakuwai was the largest tributary which we passed 

 in the course of our first day's ascent ; it joins the Barama on its left 

 bank. We noticed the first rocks lying in the river's bed above the 

 ri\'ulet Abocotte. About a mile and a half above this, the Erawanta 

 and Mazuwini join the Barama close to each other. During the 

 rainy season, when the bed of the liver is full, it forms numerous ofF- 

 flows, which adopt a more direct course than the river itself, and join 

 it again at some distance. The IncUans who are acquainted with 

 these branches navigate them, and thus shorten the ascent mate- 

 rially. 



