An Impression of the Guiana Wilderness 375 



nated British Guiana there 

 is practically not a single 

 roadway penetrating into 

 the interior. Such roads as 

 exist are those that follow 

 the contour of the ocean, 

 being implanted upon the 

 hard, dry sand which lines 

 the ocean for a long distance, 

 and the few miles follow- 

 ing irrigation and drainage 

 canals, which strike out to 

 abandoned cane plantations 

 and to the few sugar mills 

 that continue with a fair 

 amount of success to wage 

 the strife against the com- 

 petitive industry of beet- 

 sugar. 



The first free impression 

 of nature that the traveler 

 obtains in British Guiana 

 is associated with the im- 

 mediate surroundings of 

 Georgetown, the capital. 

 In the great expanse of 

 meadow land, the savannas 

 of the northern part of the 

 country, which stretch back 

 a distance of from two to 

 twenty and thirty miles, a 

 large stretch of country is 

 below sea-level, and is held 

 in position away from the 

 overflow of the ocean by the 

 construction of sea-walls 

 and sea-dams. 



PROFUSION OF HFRONS, ALLIGATORS, ANA- 

 CONDAS AND ALL KINDS OF LIFE 



The profusion of life that is met with — 

 the free life of birds, quadrupeds, and 

 reptiles — is most astonishing. While I 

 had expected naturally to see much of 

 this, yet I was wholly unprepared for the 

 reality, and it was a marvel to note how 

 little heed the animals take of the pres- 

 ence of man. The meadows literally 

 swarmed with the wild fowl of the coun- 

 try ; the great white heron, the ibis, egret, 

 and spurwing were out in thousands, 

 carina: little as to whether man was near 



Photo by Angelo Heilprin 



A Giant Three-toed Sloth 



or far. You walk along the short roads 

 that have been constructed along the 

 canals and find almost every bush — 

 practically every tree and every bush that 

 line the road — alive with the hawk and 

 the eagle and other birds of prey, who sit 

 and plume themselves, seemingly regard- 

 less of the passing strangers, who may 

 approach them to within five or six feet 

 or less. 



The waters immediately about us, al- 

 though not everywhere, teem with alli- 

 gators, who likewise appear to bear but 

 little grudge against man. At times 



