16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 177 
zone, the most prominent being in the Northwest District (fig. 4; 
pl. 9). For the most part, however, except on occasional high spots 
along the rivers, the coastal zone became desirable for habitation by 
agricultural groups only after extensive drainage operations had 
been introduced subsequent to European occupation of the area. 
The largest part of the colony is rolling, rather low terrain covered 
with forest. The elevation at 1.5 degrees north latitude on the upper 
Essequibo is only about 152 meters (500 feet) above sea level. To- 
ward the west, in the drainage of the Mazaruni River, the landscape 
is more rugged and is dominated by high plateaus. The frequency 
of rivers and streams is an obstacle to overland travel, and even 
today transportation is principally by water or by air. The present 
population of the forest zone is predominantly Indian, and this region 
shelters several groups that retain their aboriginal pattern of life 
largely unaltered. The land is exploitable by slash-and-burn agri- 
culture, but does not lend itself to intensive utilization. In the 
absence of outstanding commercially valuable vegetable or mineral 
resources, except bauxite near the coast, there has been little penetra- 
tion of European settlement, and the forest areas, which represent the 
major portion of the colony, remain unaltered from their aboriginal 
condition. 
The third zone is the Rupununi savanna, occupying the south- 
western portion of the colony between the Pakarima range (pl. 2) and 
Marudi Mountain, and extending westward into adjacent Brazil. 
The savannas cover an area of approximately 13,934 square km. 
(5,380 square miles), and have an elevation of 91.4 to 213.3 meters 
(300 to 700 feet) (Baldwin, 1946). They are divided into two nearly 
equal parts by the Kanuku Mountains that run in an east-west direc- 
tion for about 120 km. (75 miles), measure 40 to 48 km. (25 to 30 
miles) wide, and rise some 609.6 meters (2,000 feet). The terrain is 
generally level north of the Kanuku Mountains, becoming more roll- 
ing and broken by small tree-covered hills to the south. The vegeta- 
tion is also more open in the north, although large areas devoid of 
scattered trees are few even here. In the south savanna, groves of 
trees become increasingly frequent, gradually blending together and 
replacing the savanna entirely. Much of the savanna floods during 
the rainy season, when the rainfall exceeds the capacity of the rivers 
to drain it off. At this time the Takutu River rises about 12.2 meters 
(40 feet) above its dry season level, and other rivers overflow their 
banks. During the dry season, the clay and laterite, which are the 
dominant soil types, bake into a hard mass that offers little nourish- 
ment to the grass and is unsuitable for agriculture. In spite of its 
poor pasture quality, the Rupununi savanna is the most developed 
and most populous interior region because of the cattle industry. 
