FEENCH GUIANA. 



69 



Brazilian named Paulino in the year 1855. Since then both the Approuague 

 and the Upper Maroni goldfields have yielded a continuous supply of the 

 precious metal to the miners. 



On the coast between the Approuague and Oyapok estuaries the so-called 

 Montagne d' Argent (" Silver Mountain "), a little eminence 264 feet high, also 

 recalls some old mining operations. Here an unhealthy penal settlement, which 

 had to be abandoned, has been replaced by a coffee plantation. The Montagne 

 d'Argent serves as a landmark to pilots making for the mouth of the Oyapok, 

 present easterly limit of French Guiana. There are scarcely any settlements in 

 the valley of this copious river, which has been thoroughly but unsuccessfully 



Fig-. 22.- — Gold Mines of Guiaxa. 

 Scale 1 : 13,000,000. 



Gold Mines (Placers). 

 '.5> 



. 2.50 arues. 



explored by prospectors 

 banks of the stream. 



iS^o thing was found excej)t a few particles along the 



Natural Resources. — Trade. 



In French Guiana are found all the products of the tropical zone, but none 

 in sufficient abundance to support a large export trade. In 1890, after half a 

 century of agricultural decline, not more than 9,400 acres were under cultivation 

 in the whole colony, and of these fully two-thirds were devoted to the production 

 of provisions for the local consumption. Sugar, coffee, and cacao represent 

 altogether a total annual crop of not more than 100 tons. The so-called hattes or 

 ménageries (cattle farms, farmsteads), contain very few cattle, and in 1890 the 

 39 



