148 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



goats, and nearly 2.000,000 swine. That peculiar animal, the 

 sloth, comes from Venezuela, and so does the ant-eater. 



There is at present one refrigerating plant in Venezuela, viz., 

 the Venezuela Meat and Product Syndicate, Ltd., of London. 

 It is situated at Puerto Cabello. The plant has a daily capacity 

 of 2000 head. 



I have not been to Venezuela since 1884, so have had to rely 

 on books of reference for part of the above. 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



British Guiana occupies an area, equal in extent to Great 

 Britain, in the north-east of South America. It is bounded on 

 the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the soiith and south-west by 

 Brazil, on the east by Dutch Guiana, and on the north-west by 

 Venezuela. It has a seaboard of about 270 miles trending in 

 a south-easterly direction, and a maximum depth of about 500 

 miles. The colony may be divided broadly into three belts. 

 The northern one consists of a low-lying flat and swampy belt 

 of marine alluvium, known as the coastal region. This rises 

 gradually from the seaboard, and extends inland for a distance 

 varying from 10 to 40 miles. It is succeeded by a broader and 

 slightly elevated tract of country composed of sandy and clayey, 

 practically sedentary, soils. This belt is chiefly undulating- 

 land, and is traversed in places by tracts of sand-dunes rising- 

 from 50 to 180 ft. above sea-level. The more elevated portion 

 lies to the southward of the above mentioned regions. It rises 

 gradually to the south-west, between the river valleys, which are 

 in many parts swampy, and contains three principal mountain 

 ranges, several irregularly distributed smaller ranges, and in the 

 southern and eastern i)arts many isolated hills and mountains. 

 The eastern portion is almost entirely forest clad, but on the 

 central south and south-western side there is an extensive area 

 of flat grass-clad savannah land elevated from 300 ft. upwards 

 above sea-level. 



The Parliament of British Guiana recently passed a vote of 

 about £12,000 to be used in making a cattle track from the 

 savannahs, in the hinterland, or interior of the colony, to the 

 coast line. The distance is something like 120 miles, and much 

 of it through dense bush. 



A Mr. Ogilvie, who is a rancher in the hinterland, is enthu- 

 siastic as to the possibilities of cattle raising on the savannahs 



