Up the Cuyuni in 1837. 327 



upper current of clouds was N.E., like the sea breeze. I 

 found no peculiarities in the Zoological department. 

 The channel up is circuitous in order to substitute 

 numerous small rapids for single great falls. There are 

 three portages for the corial itself and six more for the 

 baggage alone, whereas in Massaroony to a similar 

 elevation there is only one portage, viz., at the mouth of 

 the Caboory Creek. I should suppose that a line drawn 

 W. by N. would interse6lthe average course of the river 

 to the Yuruary, beyond which the Spanish authorities give 

 it a semicircular detour to the South. 



I can find no traces of any one having preceded me in 

 the survey of the lower part of the river ; the truth is 

 few corials are equal to it, and the woodskins or bark 

 canoes of the Indians are so inconvenient to sit in, and 

 cnrry so small a cargo that few would attempt the ascent 

 in them. The coloured people below are ignorant of the 

 passages after the first day, and the Indians themselves 

 do not know how to manage a large craft. My former 

 habits gave mean advantage that succeeding adventurers 

 will appreciate, to whom I would state that beyond all 

 other rivers the Cuyuny is the most difficult and dan- 

 gerous in the ascent, and should only be attempted with 

 a corial like mine of the very finest description, and with 

 a crew of the native Accaway Indians of the river itself 

 from the upper part, for I would not wish my greatest 

 enemy such a crew as I was obliged to put up with, the 

 Caribisce below the falls. 



Chatsworth, Feb. 2nd, 1838. 

 Sir, — I had much pleasure in receiving your interest- 

 ing letter of December, 1837, ^"^ was sorry to learn by 



TT 



