The Future Prosperity of the Colony. 359 



be estimated. All these countries have possessed, and 

 still possess, along with great mineral wealth, vast capa- 

 bilities for agricultural wealth also. The same can be 

 said of this country, for in addition to the lands already 

 in cultivation and empoldered, there are the thousands 

 of square miles of hilly savannahs, whereon millions of 

 cattle can be reared. To give some idea of the possi- 

 bilities of cattle raising, the words of ALEXANDER VON 

 Humboldt, who visited Venezuela in the company of 

 Mons. BONPLAND in the years 1 799-1 804, may be quoted. 

 " I shall not hazard any general estimates, which from 

 " their nature are too uncertain ; but shall only observe 

 " that in the llanos of Caracas the proprietors of the 

 " great hatos are entirely ignorant of the number of the 

 " cattle they possess. They only know that of the young 

 " cattle, which are branded every year with a letter or 

 " mark peculiar to each herd. The richest proprietors 

 " mark as many as 14,000 head every year and sell to 

 " the number of five or six thousand." 



The most reasonable scheme of realising these valu- 

 able pasture lands is by following the gradual extension 

 of the Gold Industry, and improving the means of com- 

 munication with the new diggings as they are opened 

 up in the dire6lion of the savannah country. There is 

 every reason to believe that gold bearing quartz exists in 

 these savannahs, if the words of so generally accurate 

 and careful an observer as the late Sir ROBERT SCHOM- 

 BURGK, may be relied upon. He constantly refers to 

 quartz in conne6lion with savannahs Thus he says " the 

 " savannahs between the Rupununi and Rio Branco are 

 *' covered with numerous angular quartz rocks." Speak- 

 ing ot the Takutu river '* he says on approaching Curata- 



Z7. 2 



