A NATURALIS1T’S EXPERIENCES IN BRICISH GUIANA 
From our vantage point we made our 
way along the edge of the canyon till we 
stood at the brink of the fall itself. Here 
we rested and enjoyed the cooler water 
of the river, for my thirst had not yet 
deserted me. In exploring the region 
and looking from different viewpoints at 
Kaieteur, we spent most of the day. We 
slept at Tukeit once more. And so our 
trip down the river began. 
The return was almost uneventful. 
Two of my Indians contracted the fever 
and I left them at Kangarooma, where 
the others returned to them after bring: 
ing me to Potaro Landing. I hope they 
recovered; but, naturally, I never heard 
859 
of them again. Traveling with the cur- 
rent, | made much better time than o: 
my trip inland. Passing all the familiar 
points, I reached Ceorgetown on Satur- 
day. 
Today, seated in my study and sur- 
rounded by things of comfort, it is a 
boundless pleasure in which I often in- 
dulge to dream of Kaieteur. In the day, 
when my thoughts are elsewhere, and in 
the night, when I am sleeping, its flow- 
ing waters never cease to fall. And when 
my mind, wearied of the shrieking city, 
seeks the fastness of the Guiana jungle, 
Kaieteur is still tumbling there, undis- 
turbed by man. 
NOTES FROM A NATURALIST’S EXPERI- 
ENCES IN BRITISH GUIANA 
By C. H. E1rcenmann* 
have been settled by the 
Dutch, for “the coast lands are flat 
and for the most part swampy, being 
slightly depressed below the level of or- 
dinary spring tides, so that sea-walls and 
other defenses have to be constructed to 
protect the settled parts of the coast lands 
from being flooded at high tides.” The 
low land extends for 10 to 40 miles into 
the interior, and most of the cultivated 
area lies in this belt. 
Beyond the low land comes a belt of 
undulating country, in part at least made 
up of old sand dunes and covered tor the 
most part by forests. South of the sand 
dunes comes the hinterland, forming 
eleven-twelfths of the area of the colony 
and sloping up to goo feet above sea- 
level at the source of the Takutu, on the 
western boundary, and about 400 feet at 
the source of the Courantyne, on the east- 
ern boundary, and containing several 
mountain ranges. 
“One of the most prominent features 
of the country is the great central mass 
PIS natural that British Guiana 
should 
* Abstracted from “The Fresh Water Fishes of British Guiana,” by C. H. Eigenmann. 
of mostly flat-topped mountains, know: 
as the Pakaraima group or chain, whic. 
occupies the most western portion of the 
colony, and stretches southward from the 
Cuyuni River to within 30 miles above 
the mouth of the Ireng River, and east- 
ward to the E;ssequibo River, right acros; 
the colony as far as the Courantyne 
River.” This area culminates in Mourt 
Roraima, 12 square miles in area and ris- 
ing 8,635 feet above the sea, the last 
2,000 feet of which rise as perpendicular 
cliffs of sandstone from the surrounding 
country. 
The rivers of the plateau leave it ovcr 
high falls, of which the Kaieteur of th 
Potaro is the most famous. Rivers there 
are in abundance in the entire colony. 
Most of them are crossed by dikes, d’- 
viding them into stretches that are navi~ 
gable, and others full of rapids and falls. 
The principal rivers are the Demerara 
and the E'ssequibo, to the iatter of which 
the Cuyuni, Mazaruni, Potaro, and Ru- 
pununi are the principal tributaries. 
I had two main objects*in going to 
Vol. 
V, of Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh. 
