200 
Fort Kyk-over-All. 
trips inland and upstream in company with Hancock, Stöckle, and 
Florenz : it was usually then that I particularly enriched my botanical 
collections and filled any gaps caused by the rain and moisture. 
652. Although Meyer in his Flora Essequiboensis alone describes 366 
genera and species, and Aublet enumerates a considerable number of 
others, I nevertheless discovered a quantity of plants that were 
described neither by the one nor the other. The richer however niv 
botanical harvest, the poorer did the zoological prove to be: even all the 
oft-repeated efforts to increase my ichthyological collection were blocked 
by the high level of the water when no other fish than the Crenicichla 
Jugubris Heckel., can be enticed to take a bait. On returning out of 
humour of an evening from my fruitless fishing, I would try and forget 
my annoyance in the really beautiful enchanting landscape over the wide 
stretch of the Essequibo which, with its slow almost imperceptible cur- 
rent., was rolling along to the ocean. If I lie gradual advance of the stream 
were not noticeable, by the floating trees uprooted in the upper 
reaches through the raging force of its current, anyone would take this 
huge mass of water for a tranquil lake. Even the momentary stir and 
blocking of the waters when the flood sets in would pass unnoticed were it 
not that the tongue of land on which Bartika Grove is situate had been so 
washed away already that Mr. Bernau had been forced to put up a fascine 
dam. At high flood the rise generally measures seven to eight feet, at 
the spring on the other hand, usually ten to twelve, when the water will 
overflow the banks in many places. I cannot explain the tempestuous 
violence with which the Essequibo rushes into the sea. Bartika Grove 
is situate in 6° 24' 24" lat. N. and 58° 37' 44" long. W. 
653. From the observations made directly after our arrival in 
connexion with the temperature of the water as compared with that of 
the air, it was found that the former at 6 a.m. was usually from 8 to 10 
degrees warmer than the latter, at 2 p.m. on the contrary the air was 1 to 
2 degrees warmer than the water, while at 6 p.m. the water was again 
2 to 3 degrees higher than the air. This considerable difference between 
the two temperatures at sunrise is the reason why the thick masses of 
mist that develop every morning on the surface of the water are generally 
dispelled only several hours later when the increasing warmth of the 
sun has re-established the balance in temperature. All the data subse- 
quently obtained by us strictly corresponded with these results. 
654. After having explored the immediate neighbourhood as far as 
we could, we turned the bow of our corial towards Kyk-over-all, the 
small island at the Mazaruni mouth. Here are to be found the ruins of 
a small Fort from which one can enjoy an unrestricted view over the 
streams of three rivers, the Essequibo, Cuvuni, and Mazaruni, and hence 
its name. The original Fort, built of hewn stone, which was already in 
ruins on the arrival of the Dutch, was built by the Portuguese as may be 
seen from their coati of -arms over the entrance. 
655. A short time after the Hollanders had been driven from the 
Essequibo by the Spaniards with the assistance of the Indians, in 1596, a 
certain .Tost van der Hooge returned to found the colony of Nova 
Zeelandia. Already fully established in 1613 it was protected by a 
