Interior Communications for British Guiana. 19 



Plateau the route would be around the Amen Hill and through the valley 

 of the Korume, as described in my report to the Government of October, 

 1918. 



Of the total length of the proposed route, about 201 £ miles, 

 some 108 miles are along the existing public roads of the Colony, 

 twenty-two miles are along established paths or cut lines, one and 

 a half miles are on the flat open rock surface of the plateau, thirty- 

 five miles are along recently surveyed lines which have been cut, marked 

 and mapped, and only about thirty-five miles of connecting links remain. 

 If we adopt the scheme only in part so as to utilise the Bartica Steamer 

 Service, then only about fifteen miles of connecting links remain. 



There are several factors for consideration in connection with the 

 proposal for establishing road connection between the Highland Savannahs 

 and the coastlands, any one of which standing alone would probably be 

 insufficient to justify large expenditure for road building, but which when 

 taken together will, I think, be found sufficiently important to warrant 

 expenditure by the Colony of a sum sufficient for a more thorough 

 examination of the proposition, including the going over of the ground 

 from end to end and surveying of the short sections of the proposed 

 route regarding which information is at present scant. The principal 

 benefits, financial and otherwise, to be derived from a well-built road 

 connecting the savannahs of Upper Potaro with the City and Port of 

 Georgetown would be : — 



1. The bringing within a few hours' motor run of Georgetown some 

 of the most magnificent scenery in the world, including the Kaieteur Fall 

 and the magnificent Kaieteur Gorge. This phase of the matter cannot 

 be measured merely by the extent to which local inhabitants may benefit 

 by the new means placed at their disposal, but by the numerous and 

 much further reaching benefits which will accrue to the Colony from the 

 large number of persons from other parts of the world who will come 

 here and in a few hours be in a position to grasp the grandeur and 

 far-reaching possibilities of this Colony now so securely locked away 

 from the world. It would probably be safe to say that not one in 

 one hundred of the visitors to the Colony (and of local inhabitants too 

 for that matter) really grasp and realise the full significance of the fact 

 that eleven-twelfths of the area of the Colony remain as a locked box, 

 and that this eleven- twelfths of the area of British Guiana would appear 

 to be among the richest territory in the world. 



2. One of the Colony's greatest gifts of potential wealth lies in the 

 abundant water power available. To the navigation of the rivers the 

 numerous waterfalls constitute an effective bar, thereby adding enor- 

 mously to the expense of travel and the transportation of merchandise 

 These waterfalls, however, are a disadvantage to the country only in its 

 present undeveloped state, and when any degree of development has set 

 in, as is hoped may be the condition in the near future, the value of the 

 various falls for the production of electrical energy will many times out- 



