18S 
Pitch Bay. 
do with it, its contribution could only be insignificant amidst the huge 
quantity of alluvium, for the sea is so chock full of mud and mire along 
an area at least 15U miles long and in some places 10 miles out, that in 
particular spots even the waves themselves resemble thin soft ooze. 
Furthermore this generally accepted explanation is absolutely incom- 
patible with a piece of coastland so small as t hat of Guiana and especially 
all the more so because the interior mountain-country whence the rivers 
bear their bright translucent waters to the sea almost always belong to 
tlie class of primitive rocks and accordingly can contribute but little to 
the accumulations. Again, were the immediate coast alone to have sup- 
plied these huge masses of mud it must have been washed away under the 
sea ages ago. That the causes for this phenomenon are to be sought not 
alone in the lands immediately adjacent to the sea, but also, judging 
from their very great magnitude, in some other part of the world or at 
least quite elsewhere in America, is further indicated by the species of 
mussel and snail which I found not. only upon the mud and sand-banks 
at the mouth of the Waini but along the whole coast.* 
630. As the sea was fairly smooth we fortunately reached without 
accident the Pomeroon mouth, where, on flu* western bank, is Mr. 
McOlintock's station, which we chose for our night’s camp: we were most 
heartily welcomed by Mrs. McClintock on our arrival. 
631. From the mouth of the Waini the coast stretches in a south- 
easterly direction towards the mouth of the Morocco and forms on its 
way Pitch Bay which is a mile wide and 11 mile deep. A kind of pitch 
is said to have gushed out of the bottom of this bay in earlier days and 
being tossed about on the water for a time to have become as hard as 
stone. f Tf this really was the case formerly, its source must be dried 
up now. After being driven on t of the Baritna the Dutch had built a 
Fort just at the mouth of the Morocco: traces of the fascine work and of 
the walls can still be seen at dead low water. The Dutch towns of 
Middleburg and Vlissingen on the contrary planned a eolonv on the 
Pomeroon in the year 1657. The spit on the western bank has been 
guarded by a military post since 1754 to check the frequent escapes of 
slaves by water: that on the eastern bank forms Gape Nassau, which is 
encircled with a mudbank stretching over an hour out to sea in a north- 
easterly direction. 
* The greater part of the material for the mud-flats probably comes from the Amazon 
River fE. E. W). 
t In connection with this Pitch Bay, the oil expert, Mr. Geo. B. Reynolds, has kindly 
drawn my attention to the following extract (translation! from J. J. Hartsi tick's “Beschreyving 
van Guiana of de Wild Kust in Zuid Amerika” Amsterdam. 1770. pp. 257-8. 
“The first rivers which we, coming from the Oronoque, meet in Dutch Guiana, are the 
“ Creeks or Rivers of Barvma, about oue mile in width, where we formerly have had a Station : 
“ three miles further, the River Amachara, of the same width, which, together with the above 
“ mentioned, discharge themselves in the Mouth of the river Oronoque : fully three miles 
“ in a more Easterly direction, the Creek Mocco Mocco : yet two miles further, the River Waine 
*■ three quarters of a mile in width but shallow. 
“ The Coast then extends itself in a South-South-Easterly direction and forms, at one and 
“a half miles in a more South Easterly direction, a Bay, named the “ Bay of Peche” one mile in 
width and one and a half mile in depth, running thus up to the River Moruga, named by us 
“Marocke, situated six miles from the Waine. 
“In the said Bay a kind of Pitch oozes from the soil, which, floating on the water for some 
“ time becomes as hard as stone.” (Ed.) 
