406 
Immunity of Yellow Fever at Berbice. 
and irrigated by the ebb and flow, prevented the accumulation of filth. 
The favourable influence Avliich this canalisation exercises on the 
sanitary condition of the town, is brought into prominence by the fact 
that Berbice is only very rarely attacked with yellow fever, and even 
when this does happen to be tlie case, never to the same extent as in 
Georgetown.* 
1,025. From the sea there is a glorious view of the town. Crab 
Island, so called from the 'quantities of these animals found there, lies 
almost right in fiout of the mouth of the Berbice: it is low-lying, 
covered with bush and about a mile in circumference. A small dune 
running out from its noi-thern and southern extremities divi<les the 
river bed into two navigable channels, but it is unfortunately increasing 
so alarmingly towards the eastern bank', that it is to be feared its 
extension will entirely block the deep canal with sand. On the eastern 
bank opposite Crab Island rise the ruins of the old Fort St. Andre\N^ 
surrounded with four bastions and a wide ditch. The barracks of the 
military, and the quarters for the Engineers and Artillery are erected 
in a quadrangle surrounded by high palisades at the junction of the 
Canje with the Berbice and are also defended by a battery. 
1.026. According to the Census of 1841, New Amsterdam had a 
population of 3,460, of whom only 180 were Europeans, the remainder 
consisting of mulattoes and Negroes. Amongst religious buildings might 
be mentioned the three churches of the Episcopalians, Scottish and 
Lutherans. The Wesleyans and Catholics already had chapels hei'o 
when the c'ity lacked her churches. Besides the Public School, which is 
supported by voluntary contributions and the substantial support of 
the Colonial Government, eight private schools are nevertheless in 
existence. The business portion of the city with its excellent ware- 
houses and wharves built on piles runs immediately alongside the river. 
In addition to the overland post that constitutes the means of 
communication between both chief towns, there is also a steamer plying- 
between them twice weekly. l)ackwards and forwards. 
1.027. The banks of the Berbice are occupied for about 40 miles up, 
beyond which the district of the aborigines commences. The sources 
must be somewhere in the neighbourhood of the third degree latitude 
north. At 3° 55' lat. North it approaches the Essequibo to with'in 0 
miles, and then strikes a north westerly course, when its bed now 
narrows, and again forms lake-like expanses. The banks are also low 
and swampy: its cataracts and rapids begin in 4° 19' lat. N. Up to 
4° 50' it is navigable, and at latitude 5° it winds towards the North-East, 
the direction which it retains as far as its mouth. The stretch of coast 
between the mouths of the Berl)ice and Corentyn is only here and 
there occupied by farms and sugar estates which, equally scattered and 
isolated, also extend a few miles up the western bank of the Corentvn. 
The river empties itself in an estuary full of mud-flats and sandbanks 
• This immunity from Yellow Fever is not to be attributed to the favourable influenoe 
of cinalisation but to the distribution of the mosfjuito-carrier and to the fact that in a 
population of 3,4G0 there were only 180 Europeans. The author liimself notes jn anotber 
paragraph the comparative immunity of the native population. (F,G.R,) 
