JDrinking Water Supplies, 
37 
131. The arrangements for regulating intercourse between the In- 
dian population and the Colony, for protecting the Indians, and advanc- 
ing their welfare, were formerly entrusted to six Protectors, six Sta- 
tion commanders, and three Assessors. In place of the latter, three 
Superintendents and six Post-holders nowadays control the rivers and 
creeks. The present order of things is but of little advantage to the 
aborigines, and assumes a constabulary character rather than fulfilling 
the original object in view when the Protectors and Station-commanders 
were appointed in 1794.° 
132. The Police in British Guiana consist of an Inspector General 
and a Secretary, two Sub-Inspectors for the Demerara and Essequibo 
Districts, and one Sub-Inspector for the Berbiee, 15 Sergeants and 10b 
Constables for Demerara and Essequibo, and (5 Sergeants and 32 Con- 
stables for Berbiee. In the Demerara and Essequibo are live prisons: ri~., 
Georgetown, Mahaica, Wakenaam, Capoey, and the new Penal Settle- 
ment at Mazaruni: in Berbiee there are four, in New Amsterdam, in 
Sts. Clement and Catherine Parish, in St. Michael’s, and the fourth in 
St. Saviour’s.! 
133. Owing to the complete absence of fresh water every house has a 
tank or cistern for catching rain, but owing to the long-continued 
drought, it evaporates uncommonly quick. It was on this account that 
the Government recognised the necessity for bringing fresh water from 
distant lying rivers, because owing to the extensive lowlands being sub- 
ject to tidal influences over a considerable area, the coastal streams are 
as unpalatable as those of the briny ocean itself. To remedy this urgent 
want and obtain fresh water. Major Staples* * determined upon boring 
an artesian well, in the sinking of which an extremely favourable oppor- 
tunity presented itself of learning the particular stvatigraphical condi- 
tions down to a considerable depth, along (his immense stretch of allu- 
vial coastline. 
134. Clear water though still strongly impregnated with iron first 
showed itself at a depth of 140 feet. The following geognostic results were 
obtained as far as this point. Twelve feet below the surface, tin* borer 
struck a bed of half-charred C arid a and Rhizophora trees which at a 
depth of 40 feet was followed by a bed of blue loam about 50 feet thick 
that again overlay a second bell of timber about 1 \ feet deep. Immediate- 
ly below this a 9 feet thick bed of compact grey-white clay was pierced, 
which somewhat deeper down was mixed with plenty of sand and ap- 
peared violet-coloured, and then followed a yellow-tinted one. 
135. This favourable result induced several farmers, particularly 
on the West Coast, where they had suffered most from water famine on 
account of continued drought, to repeat the attempt on their own pro- 
perties. To show how dependent the live stock on the coast is upon weatli- 
o The present law for the better protection of the Aboriginal Indians (Old. 2H of 101 (I ) 
wa s based on the experience gained by the Translator in framing the Queensland and West 
Australian statutes. (Ed.) , 
t See “ Geographisch— statistische Beschreibung von Britisch Guiana etc. By R. H. 
Schomburgk. . 
* There is authority for the correct spelling ot this name either as Staple or Staples. For 
the benefit of his Teutonic readers, Schomburgk writes it Stapel : in the course of the text 
it will be noticed that certain other patronymics have been slightly altered for similar reasons, 
(JR) 
