52 NA/fURAL HIsrORT 



the rains, they become totally obliterated. Two days journey, 

 or two and a half above this, is the great fall, where the ftream 

 comes over the face of a rock, as we were informed, twenty 

 feet high. 



Savannahs. — Savannahs, ever fince the difcovery of Ame- 

 rica, have been known to occupy large fpaces in the fouthern 

 parts of that continent. They are to be met with abundantly 

 in Guiana, and are of two kinds very diftin^ft from each other, 

 the wet and tliQ dry. Of the former, many are extenfive as the 

 eye can reach, immenfe verdant plains occupying the whole 

 face of a country, with or without a few flraggling infulated 

 patches of wood. In the dry feafon, they appear meadows of 

 long grafs or reeds, aiKl are leldom practicable for any diftance, 

 for the bottom is very rarely dry. In the wet feafon, they are 

 all one entire plain of water, over the furface of which the grafs 

 ftill rifes, but which may be every where navigated in the cou- 

 rialls or canoes. Towards the end of the drought, the Indians 

 let fire to them. Tlie young growth wliich fucceeds attradls 

 the deer, and the native, on the return of the half-deucalion 

 days, purfues them in his little bark acrofs their former plains. 

 The foil upon thefe favannahs can neither be Very deep nor 

 very good ; yet water may be always commanded, and labour 

 and induftry might convert thefe deferts into rice-fields. It is 

 a queftion whether the days of flavery will ever fee that event. 

 The culture of this iifeful vegetable, which in the eaft has for 

 ages been the (landing food of millions, brings too moderate a 

 return, at leafl in. an infant colony, for the rapacious agricultu- 

 ral fyftem af the Weft Indies. 



The dry favannahs are neither fo frequent nor fo extenfive, yet 

 we have pafTed through fome of them feveral leagues in circumfe- 

 rence. They are formed along the flats on the top of the fand 

 ridges, and covered by a very thin coat of verdure. They re- 

 femble, exacflly enough, fome of the bare moors in Scotland. 



Many 



