Barima, Waini, and Amakura Rivers. 57 



and in consequence most of it comes to George- 

 town. 



The land seems to promise well for cocoa, for though 

 flat and swampy, it is extremely fertile, being dark, rich, 

 and heavy, and easily drained. In appearance the soil 

 looks like a heavy peaty clay, mixed with fibrous roots, 

 and largely composed of decayed vegetable matter. 

 Cocoa would of course be less liable to spoil in transit 

 than the ordinary produce, and if carefully packed 

 would be almost proof against deterioration ; but it 

 is notoriously a crop which requires a long waiting, 

 and the settlers could scarcely afford to plant it ; though, 

 in the end, it would pay them very much better than 

 anything else. 



On one or two of the hills in the Arooka River there 

 are both cocoa and coffee trees of very considerable age. 

 Some are quite surrounded and choked by the bush that 

 has sprung up by them ; while the name of the planter 

 is already lost in obscurity. 



In the event of a large and regular fruit trade being 

 established between this colony and the United States 

 of America, the whole portion of the district watered by 

 the Barima, Amakura and Waini Rivers and their tribu- 

 taries, below their falls, would offer a magnificent field 

 for enterprise as a fruit-producing region, both on account 

 of its extreme fertility and of its easy access by water, 

 whereby the number of trans-shipments of the produce 

 would be considerably fewer, and the risk of damage 

 thereto materially lessened. 



The Waini it is true is very shallow, but no doubt 

 this difficulty could be easily overcome. The Barima 

 and Amakura on the contrary are deep, and would 



H 



