Of G UlANA, 49 



canals or ditches are fufficient to drain tlie land, which is flill 

 perfedlly flat. The trees are here different in fpecies and larger 

 in fize than below, and the woods are much more pradlicable. 

 As they are drier, the ground has acquired a regular fort of fur- 

 face, and there is neither that plexus of roots, nor the fame 

 number of vines, (the common name in the Weft Indies for 

 all climbing plants), to entangle thofe who choofe to traverfe 

 them. The foil here is generally a ftiff, cold, reddilh clay, 

 mixed a-top with a portion of vegetable mould. 



The fand-hills prefent to the admiring eye a fcene very dif- 

 ferent from what it had been accuftomed to below. The firft 

 you meet with upon the Demerary, is upwards of thirty miles 

 from the mouth of the river, and on the right hand afcending, 

 or on its weflern lliore. There are of them further down in 

 the country, but not clofe by the river-fide. This one is the 

 extremity of a ridge which extends to the w^eftward feveral 

 miles. As you afcend the river, you meet with many more of 

 the fame kind on both fides, whofe direction feems Ukewife to 

 be eaft and vv^eft, or nearly at right-angles w^ith the average 

 courfe of the ftream. They vary from 50 to 100, 150, or 200 

 feet of perpendicular height above the level of the river and the 

 intervening flat country. Their breadth and extent varies 

 fometimes only a few hundred paces, fometimes many miles. 

 Their length is great ; with fome interruptions, I have reafon 

 to believe they are generally continued from one fide of the 

 colony to the other, only interfe(5ted in different places by the 

 rivers and their branches. They confift of a pure filiceous 

 fand, fo white that it dazzles the eyes, commonly fine grained 

 and loofe, but not unfrequently mixed with little ftrata of 

 coarfer pebbles, moftly quartz, and fometimes concreted into 

 a proper fand-flone. In the laft cafe, a black or reddifli tinge 

 is in many cafes communicated to it, from clay, decayed vege- 

 tables, or other extraneous matter. There is no regular ftratifi- 

 cation to be found in it, more than what is common to all 



Vol. IV. G fands. 



