88 TlMEHRI. 
low water, when the gates were opened, and the rush of 
pent-up water assisted materially in clearing out the silt 
from the canal mouth. Canals were also laid out in 
such a way as to gain the advantage of the scour of the 
rivers and creeks to keep the drainage open, as may be 
seen in the abandoned canals connected with the Mahaica, 
Mahaicony, and Berbice Rivers, and on either side of the 
Demerary. The internal Canals Nos. i, 2 and 3 on the 
Demerary, and the Grand Canal, Berbice, were simply 
highways for opening up sections of the colony, affording 
both navigation and drainage, such as may be seen to-day 
in Holland. But none of these works can be described 
as conserving fresh water. The earliest marks of an 
attempt to barrage any of our rivers and creeks is to be 
found at the junction of the Lama with the Grassy Creek. 
Here are the remains of what would seem to have been 
a rude stop-off made with stakes driven into the bed of 
the creek, against which water-grass and other debris 
must have been packed and which to a certain extent 
must have checked the flow of water to the east ; but now 
that it is known that the land in this neighbourhood is 
only 51 G.D., it is evident that any barrage of the creek 
without side dams must have had little effect. No one 
now living can give any account of this work or when it 
was done, but I presume it dates from the time of the 
Dutch. I am not astonished to find so few marks 
of water conservation in the Dutch time, because, as a 
nation, they have been more famed for keeping off water 
than for conserving it ; and in the Holland of to-day no 
large works are to be found for impounding water for 
purposes of irrigation ; and with a climate like that of 
