About and Above the Great Falls. 97 



would have to be drawn — a difficulty due to the abun- 

 dance and sharpness of the rocks along the course, 

 and the slipperiness of the clay which is found 

 at the steeper parts of the portage, and which 

 seems to be kept in an uniform condition of mois- 

 ture by rain and vapour — not to speak of the necessity 

 of laying skids and clearing the track for pulling over, 

 such as would have to be done at any portage that was 

 but rarely thus used. 



More than twenty years ago a special report on the 

 Demerara river was made by Mr. J. G. Sawkins, one 

 of the Geological Surveyors of the colony, in which a 

 short description of the distri6l above the Great Falls 

 apparently to a distance of about 35 miles, was given ; and 

 later on this was supplemented by an equally short report 

 by Mr. C. Barrington Brown, who had travelled over- 

 land to the Demerara from the Berbice river ; but the 

 descriptions given were, in both cases, extremely meagre. 

 An account, embodying a more detailed description of 

 this district, to a point some distance beyond that reached 

 by the surveyors, may not therefore be without some 

 special interest. 



The features presented by the lower portions of the 

 river, as in the tidal waters of the colony generally, are 

 extremely monotonous, the slightly elevated tra6ls 

 along the banks, such as those at the Sand Hills, Dora, 

 and Three Friends, where more or less abrupt clearings 

 are met with, affording quite a pleasing contrast with 

 the general character. As one travels on, the 

 elevated trafts become more numerous, rising in some 

 places into hills, and the aspe6l of the country is cor- 

 respondingly more pleasing, while some charming little 



N 



