Analysis of Soils on Berbice River. 279 
there, where moisture has accumulated in a hollow, 
with clumps of large handsome trees ; and the stranger 
wonders why this land is not covered with homesteads, 
with their flocks of cattle and sheep, like unto their own 
country. But, stop ; — examine what we are standing 
on, — pure white silicate ; scrape it with your foot, plunge 
your stick deep down into it, for you will find it loose 
enough, feel the heat on the surface with the palm of the 
hand and you begin to wonder how it is that anything 
green grows on it ; now examine the growth, — grass of 
the coarsest description, growing in tussocks, most of it 
razor-grass, sharp and keen at the edge, as you will find 
it your bare leg comes in contaft with it. Examine 
closer and you will find a few blades of fresher and 
sweeter grass growing under the shade of its coarser 
brother, on which the few head of cattle belonging to Mr. 
PATOIS eke out a subsistence ; poor miserable cattle they 
are, notwithstanding the miles of country over which 
they are free to roam. Inter-breeding no doubt accounts 
for a great deal of this ; but the feeding is such that you 
could never expecl to rear cattle to compete in the food 
markets of the world. Whether this feeding ground 
could be improved by burning off the coarser kinds of 
grass and allowing the sweeter kinds to grow as is done 
in Australia, is to my mind very doubtful. I do not say 
a great deal might not be done by experienced ranch men 
with capital, pluck, and knowledge, but I do not think 
this class of men will come here as long as the vast areas 
of land in America, Australia, and Canada, with 
their more suitable climate for the white man, lie 
open before them. But we must pass on. This which 
we have been gazing upon is only one of the small 
