58 NATURAL HIS'tORr 



you lofe the wopd altogether, and find yourfelf in a beautifuf 

 deep canal, winding through a fpacious wet favannah, which 

 is fometimes many leagues in circumference. The firft time 

 we went up one of thefe creeks, (called Camouni), I was fur- 

 prifed at this appearance, and thought it muft be a mere local 

 circumftance peculiar to it. We found afterwards the fame in 

 one or two more inflances, and were fatisfied upon enquiry, 

 that it is common to tliem all. It was natural to look for an 

 explanation of this phenomenon, and I foon found it in one 

 of thofe laws, which probably extend to all rivers fubjedl ta 

 frequent inundations. It has been obferved, in particular, of 

 the Ganges *, that the banks of that river are higher than 

 the adjacent lands at a diftance from the ftream, owing, no 

 doubt, to the ajmual depofitions of mud, l^c. during the fwell 

 of the river. Apply the fame rule to the Demerary, and 

 the difficulty will be folved. The wet favannah behind, and 

 the fwampy woods around them, are the body of the low 

 country at its natural level, fcarcely a foot or two above 

 the fea. Whatever additional height the land has in the vi- 

 cinity of the river, from the time you have afcended about 

 twenty miles or fo, is all acquired. It has arifen from the fedi- 

 ment of the river during the rainy feafon, when the country is 

 overflowed fo as that all the lower part of it is under water. 

 This depolition muft be always more copious, in proportion as 

 it is nearer the ftream, where additional quantities are always 

 brought, and where it is kept in motion both by the current 

 and the tide. Every thing which we afterwards faw coniirmed 

 this theory, and nothing more dire(?tly than the canals which 

 run out at right angles from the river. Some of thefe extend 

 four miles, inward, and they prove tq a demonftration, that 

 the land becomes lower and lower the farther you recede from 



the^ 



* Account of the Ganges, Sec Phil, Tranf. 1781, by M. Rennell. 



