360 TIMEHRI. 
Guide,” a semi-official Exposition publication, describes 
the spot as at the close of 1890 :— 
“ The larger part of the site dealt with was a swampy, sandy flat, 
liable at times to be submerged by the lake. Other parts were low 
ridges, which had originally been sand bars thrown up by the lake. 
Upon some of these ridges there were trees, most of them oaks, of 
stunted habit because of the sterile and water-soaked soil in which they 
had grown, and the extreme exposure to frigid winds from the lake, to 
which they had been subject to a late period every spring. The idea 
was that there should be a system of navigable waterways, to be made 
by dredging-boats working inward from the lake through the lowest 
parts of the site, the earth lifted by the boats to be so deposited as to 
add to the area, and increase the elevation of the higher parts, which 
would thus become better adapted to pleasure-ground purposes and to 
be used as the sites for the buildings of the Exposition.” 
This stupendous undertaking, together with the beau- 
tification of the made-up grounds, cost upwards of five 
millions of dollars, and on the Exposition buildings there 
was a further expenditure of at least eight millions of 
dollars—a vast amount of money under these heads of 
outlay, sufficient to “run the show” here in British 
Guiana for say five consecutive years; but the result 
was the beautiful ‘‘ White City” an adequate and merited 
description of which human language is almost powerless 
to convey. It was a magnificent sight when I arrived 
there within two weeks after the opening, even though the 
installation of exhibits still proceeded full swing amid the 
discomforts of a Chicago Spring ; the grounds had grown 
increasedly beautiful ere I bade farewell six weeks later 
when the Western Summer had fairly set in; and it 
required but little strain on the imagination to foretell 
how transcendantly lovely the matured floral and horti- 
cultural accessories must have looked during the Indian 
Summer immediately before the curtain fell and “Old 
