162 Timehri. 



present city of Georgetown, rather than making the terminus on the 

 West Bank, but probably the cheapest route to construct and the easiest 

 to finance would be the conversion of the existing West Coast Railway 

 to metre guage and its extension up the eastern side of the watershed 

 between the Demerara and Essequebo Rivers with a station opposite 

 Bartica to serve the Mazaruni and Cuyuni traffic. As you know, the 

 West Coast Railway is being continued to Parika in order to correct the 

 error made in 1897 of not giving that Railway a terminus on the 

 Essequebo estuary. The extension is nearly completed and if the 

 financial result is favourable no doubt the Combined Court will be asked, 

 and will readily approve, a further extension up the right bank of the 

 Essequibo River to a spot opposite Bartica. The present short extension 

 of 3 i miles is being excellently and economically carried out under the 

 supervision of Mr. Roy, the General Manager, with a heavy 701b. rail, 

 for the very moderate sum of £3,500 a mile. If only the other lines 

 from Georgetown to Mahaica, which cost some £15,000 a mile, and the 

 earlier extensions to Rosignol on the Berbice river, and on the West 

 ( 'oast, from Vreed-en-Hoop to Greenwich Park, costing £6,800 per mile, 

 had been equally cheaply built, the system would be earning a fair 

 interest on the capital expended and the colony would not be called 

 upon to pay the burdensome subsidy of S60.000 a year. 



Mr. Roy is of opinion, ami he is a competent judge, that the line 

 could be continued at the same rate of £3,500 a mile up to Bartica. If 

 the West Coast line reaches this point before a Railway to the South is 

 commenced, I should say that it is pretty certain that Vreed-en-Hoop 

 would be adopted as the commencing point for the Interior line leaving 

 the Wismar-Georgetown section for construction as soon as the Trans- 

 continental Line is within sight. When that time comes direct con- 

 nexion with the city of Georgetown would be essential. 



The extension Parika-Bartica. at £3,500 a mile would cost about 

 £90,000. Taking the existing steamer traffic to Bartica I believe such a 

 line would pay well from its completion and tend to develop more traffic. 



Route ok Transcontinental Line. 

 The North and South Railway as shown on the map. alter travers- 

 ing British Guiana and Northern and Central Brazil, crosses the extreme 

 eastern portion of Bolivia and a corner of Paraguay before entering the 

 Argentine, but it is more probable that the first Transcontinental Line 

 would follow a more easterly route down the eastern valley of the great 

 Paraguay river through more thickly populated country, and that at 

 first, any rate, a North and South line would be diverted eastwards, 

 giving direct communication with Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, 

 and along already existing railways through South-eastern Brazil and 

 Uruguay to the Argentine capital, Buenos Ayres. A direct North and 

 South line would come many years later when the Argentine railways 

 have been pushed up past the northern boundary of that State into the 

 Eastern portion of Bolivia, as is certain to take place in the natural 

 expansion of the Argentine Railway system 



