85 
iN Search of Fresh Water. 
294. In addition to the terrible heat of the sun to which we were 
continually exposed and which so raised the temperature of the sand and 
shell that we could hardly walk or stand on it until the afternoon, we 
had been troubled now for some days past with the oppressive want of 
fresh water. Owing to the action of the washing tide upon the river 
waters we could only remedy this from a considerable distance: the boat 
that we had despatched had but found tt first in the Aruka, a tributary 
of the Barium.* The enquiries concerning the navigability of the Waini 
did not by any means come up to our expectations, because the mouth 
even at the flood, only shows from 12 to 18 feet, a depth which is of 
course considerably increased farther up the stream. The sand-bank 
lay in 8° 24' 46" hat. N. and 59° 36' long. W.t 
295. Having, for some days past now, made the very most of our lit- 
tle plot of ground from a natural history aspect, and the want of water 
making it advisable from another point of view to get rid of those of 
its consumers who were not required, it was arranged that all members 
of the boats’ crews who were not wanted for the coastal survey, should, 1 be 
despatched ahead in one of the large corials to Cumaka, a settlement of 
the Warrau Indians on the bank of the Aruka. Mr. King was appointed 
leader, to make necessary arrangements for setting up the second sta 
(ion there: I gladly joined him for during the last few days I had been 
walking on pins and needles, and the dark distant forest was temptingly 
inviting me to come. 
296. Thus on the 27th April our small party left the barren shell- 
bank that now proved of no further use to me, and hastened to the fresh 
luxuriant green, to the forests that were so plenteously and variously 
tenanted. 
297. Owing to the sea-like expanse of the Waini estuary our late resi- 
dence with its swaying flag-staff remained visible for a long while, until 
by paddling strongly we reached the spot where on the Western bank of 
the river, apparently at right angles to it, there branches off one of those 
curious natural canals which, as I only learnt later, are so peculiarly 
characteristic of this extensive stretch of coast. The Mora Creek (Maro- 
wan of the Indians) as the Colonists call this junction canal, although 
not quite navigable for sailing vessels, nevertheless offers to smaller 
sized craft the most convenient waterway between the Barima and the 
Waini, because at its branching-off from the latter it has a depth of 16 
feet and a width of 116.i 
298. Our hitherto smoothly-going trip was suddenly upset by (he 
commencing flood, which at first drove its waters with such force up the 
broad Waini mouth and up the Mora Creek, that the steersman (cap- 
* When the party was on the sand-bank and sent to the Aruka for fresh water it must 
have evidently been to the Mabaruma Creek that they went, half a mile up the Aruka on its 
left bank, where the Morawhanna people of the present day still have to go for their drinking 
-water during the dry weather. ("V.R.) 
t I located the position of his sand-bank u at Waini mouth ” on the modern map and find 
that the spot is now far out to sea and a few miles to the east of the river mouth. (V.R.) 
+The depth of the Waini at its bar remains about the same, but of course the Mora Passage 
has considerably widened and is navigable for moderate sized steamers, although some folk 
still living remember when a sloop had difficulty in navigating it on account of the number 
of trees scattered all over the place. The Barima end of the passage has widened considerably 
even within the last three years (V.R.) 
