II. Observations on the Natural History of Guiana : In 



a Letter from WiLLUM LocHE^D, Efqj T.R.S. Eduj. to the f>. sci^kiiis.i- ' 

 Rev. Dr WjLKER, F. R. S. Edin. Regius Profeffor of Natural ,|,a.l4> ^-^'^ 

 Hijlory in the Univerfity of Edinburgh. 



[Read March 3. 1794.] 



Dear Sir, 



ALLOW me at prefent to trouble you with a few gene- 

 ral obfervations on natural hiftory, which I had an op- 

 portunity of making while on a botanical excurfion, with my 

 friend Mr Anderson, to the Dutch colony of Demerary. Qui- 

 ana is a country but little known in Europe, though its animals 

 and vegetables have added coniiderably to the catalogue of na- 

 tural produ(5lions. It is not however the organic kingdom which 

 I mean at prefent to touch upon ; all I aim at is to give you 

 fome idea of the face of the country, as leading to the know- 

 ledge of its formation and prefent ftate. It is not a field for the 

 mineralogift, as its interior is unexplored. But to the geolo- 

 gift, who wifhes to trace revolutions of the lateft date, it is not 

 uninterefling to contemplate fuch a recent and iingular coun- 

 try as Guiana. 



I NEED not inform you, that under Guiana is comprehended 

 all the coaft of South America from the Amazons to the Oroo- 

 noko ; that it trends nearly N. W. and S. E. ; that it is in gene- 

 ral a very low and flat country, efpecially the Dutch or wefter- 

 moft part of it ; and that it is watered ;by feveral rivers and 

 creeks, which rife in a chain of mountains running nearly Eo 



Vox. IV. E and 



