About and Above the Great Falls. 119 



The river seems to be extremely shallow in these 

 reaches , and opposite the Sarabaroo creek, from what 

 the Indians relate, it becomes reduced in the dry season 

 to mere tradls among sand and gravel banks, over which 

 boats would have to be drawn. Owing to the high 

 water in the distri6l, the courses of the various creeks 

 and etaboos were most difficult to follow, and at the 

 Sarabaroo creek, some 8-10 miles above Ichiderie, and at 

 the Atakapara creek, at about the same distance further 

 on, it often appeared to me as though there were no 

 pathway at all along the creek. 



The settlement on the Sarabaroo creek is situated on a 

 hilly tra6l, about a mile from the river-side, and is made 

 up of about 8 or 9 houses where some 16 people reside. 

 The houses are surrounded by a very flourishing 

 growth of plantains, cassava, sweet potato, yams, etc., 

 but the settlement seems to be decreasinof in size, 

 to judge by the number of empty and negle6led 

 houses about it. 



The settlement on the Atakapara creek is scarcely 

 half a mile from the river, and is now the last in this 

 district, though formerly there were several others con- 

 siderably further up. There seems to have been a general 

 tendency on the part of the Indians towards migration 

 to the lower distri6ls, and several sets of families seem 

 just now to have concentrated themselves at Atakapara, 

 where they are grouped in three separate places, about a 

 quarter of a mile apart, and together making up 

 a large community. Each of these divisions of the settle- 

 ment consists of several houses, some of which are of 

 immense proportions both in height and area, though 

 inhabited by but two or three people. One of these 



