BRITISH GUIANA. 



49 



Spanish stations were those on the banks of the Orinoco beyond the frontiers 

 proposed by Great Britain, and since then no part of the territory has ever been 

 occupied by the Venezuelans. The negotiations that had been opened in 1894 

 with a view to the settlement of these frontier questions fell through because the 

 Venezuelan Government insisted on including their groundless claims to the 

 north-western district, claims that the British Government " considered to be 

 80 unfounded in fact, and so unfair to the colony of British Guiana, as not to be 

 proper subject for arbitration" (Lord Rosebery). 



The lower alluvial parts of the district comprise some of the richest soil in 



Fig-. 14. — Noeth-Westeen Disteict, British Guiana. 

 Scale 1 : 3,000,000. 





61' 



West- or Greenwich 



59' 



Depths. 



0tol6 



Feet. 



IG to 32 

 Feet. 



32 to 160 

 Feet. 



160 Feet 

 and upwards. 



60 Miles. 



the world. Some of the tracts that have recently been drained " now yield 

 crops of tropical produce in simply amazing abundance. As an illustration of this 

 I may mention that the garden which hardly two and a-half years ago I cleared and 

 drained for myself now already has in it avenues of trees (crisiiariiui) over 40 

 feet high which I then planted. On the other hand, the higher part of the nevv 

 district is being fast overrun by very successful gold-diggers." * 



Thk Essequibo Basin — Quatata. 

 Despite its vast extent and the great development of its ramifying waters, the 

 Essequibo river basin has hitherto received but a very small portion of the Guiana 



* Im Thum, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Socieii/, October, 1892. 



