Of GUIANA, S9 



the river. The maps of the colonies confirm it ; for in all 

 of them the main body of the low land of Guiana is laid down 

 as favannah, and the woody country, which a ftranger or fuperfi- 

 cial obferver would fuppofe to be the whole or much the greater 

 part of it, is in facfl only a border on the fides of the rivers and of 

 the fea, but of confiderable breadth, more or lefs, in proportion 

 to the fize of the adjoining river, or, which is generally tlie 

 fame thing, to the acquired height and extent of the foil on 

 either bank. It followed as a confequence, and, as far as we 

 had opportunities of obferving, we found it to be the cafe, that 

 the low land was fomewhat higher, and continued fo farther 

 down, about the ElTequebo than the Demerary ; the woods con- 

 fequently were of greater extent. We found, befides, in the 

 foil adjoining the Effequebo, at leafl upon the eafl fide, a mix- 

 ture of fand. The river is full of fand-banks ; and it appears, 

 that the finer parts of even this lefs fufpenfible fubflance are 

 raifed by the floods and carried among the adjacent woods to be 

 depofited with the mud. The Mahayka, a fmall river or creek 

 which falls into tlie fea about twenty or thirty miles to the eaft- 

 ward of the Demerary, though it runs a long way up the 

 country, and fpreads into many branches, has but a very nar- 

 row, and often interrupted border of wood upon its banks ; it 

 runs through an immenfe favannah, and fo do its branches, 

 with little or no wood, till they approach the fand-hills. The 

 Deltas of the river of Oroonoko, and its numerous mouths, 

 make a figure even in the map of the world. It is to be 

 regretted, that its noble ftream has been fo long hid from 

 fcience. What I learned in Trinidad from a gentleman, who 

 had failed from its mouth to the Angufturas, about 300 mijes 

 up, confirms and illuftrates, in the fuUeft manner, the above 

 general rule. The weflern mouths of it oppofite Trinidad, 

 are navigable only for launches drawing fix or feven feet wa- • 



H 2 ter. 



