Gold in British Guiana. 291 
The peculiar climatic conditions of our colony must 
however be kept in mind, as they really present by far 
the most formidable obstacles to the development of the 
gold industry. It may be stated at once and decisively 
that Europeans are not fitted to perform heavy manual 
labour in our goldfields, therefore the Australian system 
of small independent parties working on their individual 
behalf is not likely to be successful. The a6lual physical 
work of digging the ground must be effe6led by hired 
Creole labour, which necessitates some capital to begin 
with, and in connexion with this view the reduction of the 
size of the claims must necessarily be regarded by capi- 
talists as disadvantageous compared with the conditions 
under the old regulations. At the same time any ordinarily 
light description of work can be safely undertaken by 
natives of temperate climates, such as cutting paths, 
clearing under-bush, attending sluices and the like, while 
there is no particular hardship in carrying a load of fifty 
pounds on a day's march. 
A mistaken idea is very prevalent as to the unhealthi- 
ness of the interior. I have never experienced any diffi- 
culty in maintaining my labourers in health with ordinary 
precautions, and considering that as a rule only the 
healthiest and most robust men engage themselves as 
labourers, the death-rate in the fields should be merely a 
nominal one. It is true there have been instances of 
white men succumbing to illness in the gold bush, but as 
it is supposable that many of those persons were broken 
in constitution as well as in fortune before they went 
there, such a result however regrettable was only to 
be expected. In an experience of five years, I have 
been sick only twice, and on both occasions I attributed 
