Barima, Waini, and Amakura Rivers. 55 



and wood doves are met with higher up, while now and 

 then one disturbs from their fishing a ducklar and his 

 mate ( P lotus anhinga). 



A peculiar feature of this passage is the remarkable 

 swiftness of its current, both at ebb and flow, and the 

 presence of large trees which have been washed down 

 and anchored by their roots, and have become fixed in the 

 centre of the channel, where they sway, bend, creak and 

 groan, as the water swirls past them at the rate of five 

 or six miles an hour. As the distance from the sea of the 

 Barima and Waini ends of the passage, is respectively 

 fifty-one and eight miles, there is considerable difficulty 

 in comprehending the state of the water in the passage, 

 for sometimes it is falling at one end and rising at the 

 other, and vice versa, or rising or falling at both ends, 

 according to the state of the tide in the sea at the time. 



At the Morawhanna mouth, the Barima is about two 

 hundred and ten yards wide and from eighty to ninety 

 feet deep ; the water is of a dark brown colour, and 

 sweeps away on either hand in bold, broad, wind-swept 

 reaches. At various points where the bush has been 

 cleared away along the bank, little clouds of smoke 

 betray the presence of the settler or squatter, who has 

 made a home for himself and is busily engaged in culti- 

 vating many kinds of ground provisions. 



In all there are some fifty or sixty different clearings 

 situated on the banks of the Waini, Morawhanna, 

 Barima, Arooka, Kaituma, and Amakura Rivers. 

 Nearly all of them are well drained, being provided with 

 dams and trenches, and outfall kokers. The land has, 

 in the first instance, been cleared of bush by Indians 

 (employed for the purpose, as they arc more accustomed 



